UTHER 
 
 i I n r 
 
 ^ ^ >' jn 
 
 ^^^ * .3? v^ 
 
 MRS.EUDOHA Is. OUTH
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 G.C.DeGarmo
 
 MARTIN LUTHER.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME; 
 
 OR, 
 
 Corradina, the Last of the Hohenstaufen. 
 
 A RKLIGIO- HISTORICAL ROMANCE. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM TIIK CKRMAX OF 
 
 LEVIN SCHUCKING 
 BY 
 
 . EUOORA. LINUSAV iSOLJXH, 
 
 Principal of Excelsior Collegiate Institute, Franklin Co., Ky. 
 and Atitlior oj " Wayside Notes and Fireside Thoughts," etc. 
 
 I would not take a hundred thousand florins not to have seen Rome." 
 
 Dr. Martin Luther. 
 
 1890: 
 
 A. M. THAVKR & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 BOSTON.
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1890, 
 
 BY 
 MRS. EUDORA LINDSAY SOUTH. 
 
 A. M. TllAVEB 
 BOSTON.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOLUME I. EGINO. 
 
 I'AGE. 
 
 I. THE BELL-FOUNDER OF ULM 9 
 
 II. PARVA DOMUS; MAGNA QUIES 18 
 
 III. IRMGARD . . . 26 
 
 IV. NOTIONS OF A GERMAN GIRL . 33 
 
 V. IN THE CASTLE OF THE SAVELLI 39 
 
 VI. WEDDED TO THE DEAD 52 
 
 VII. COAT OF ARMS OF THE HOHENSTAUFEX 56 
 
 VIII. STANZA DELLA SEGNATURA 60 
 
 IX. A PICTURE OF THE CHURCH 75 
 
 X. THE SECRET OF THE HANDICRAFT 82 
 
 XI. HOW THE SOUL- PLANT GROWS 91 
 
 XII. IN THE CLOISTER 95 
 
 XIII. THE EXERCISE-MASTER . 106 
 
 VOLUME II. THE DAUGHTER OF EMPERORS. 
 
 I. CORRADINA 119 
 
 II. A PROUD LINEAGE 125 
 
 III. LIVIO SAVELLI . 130 
 
 IV. IN THE STUDIO OF RAPHAEL 136 
 
 V. BROTHER MARTIN'S RESOLUTION . 154 
 
 VI. CINQUE-CENTO 161 
 
 VII. DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE HOUSE OF THE SAVELLI . . , . .181 
 
 VIII. THE INQUISITOR OF HERETICAL DEPRAVITY 192 
 
 IX. THOUGHTS OF A GERMAN MONK. 197 
 
 X. GOSSIP OF AN "ARTISTA" . 206 
 
 XL WHO KNOWS? 214 
 
 XII. A WAY AND A HOPE 219 
 
 XIII. NELLA PERDUTA GENTE 228
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOLUME III. THE DAUGHTER OF EMPERORS (Conclusion). 
 
 I'AGE. 
 
 I. LIVIO'S STRATAGEM 235 
 
 II. IN THE NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . 244 
 
 III. IN THE CHAPEL OK THE IMMURED . . . . . . . 253 
 
 IV. BROTHER MARTIN . . . . . 262 
 
 V. THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST IN THE VATICAN .... 264 
 
 VI. ALFONSO VON FF.RRARA 269 
 
 VII. FAITH AND WORKS * 274 
 
 VIII. IN THE HOUSE OF GIULIETIA 283 
 
 IX. THE PICTURE OF CHRIST AND THE HEAD OF THE GODDKSS . , t 288 
 
 X. THE WATCH-DOG- 298 
 
 XI. SAN DOMINICO'S TORCH AND SERPENT 302 
 
 XII. CORRADINA . 307 
 
 XIII. A MONOLOGUE OF THE MONK 318 
 
 XIV. THE POPE GOES TO SLEEP 322 
 
 XV. CALLISTO'S NEWS 325 
 
 XVI. THE LAST DROP . 335 
 
 XVII. THE BOOK OF FREDERIC II. 341 
 
 XVIII. AT THE COUCH OF IRMGAUD 344 
 
 XIX. THROUGH !...,........ 354 
 
 XX. THE MORTARA CHILD OF THE WORLD . . . ,'-. . . 363 
 
 XXI. THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PORTRAIT, MARTIN LUTHER Frontispiece 
 
 PORTRAIT, MRS. EUDORA L. SOUTH (Translator) . 7 
 
 THE ROMAN FORUM 39 
 
 ST. PETER'S, ROME, EXTERIOR . . . . .60 
 
 PORTRAIT, RAPHAEL SANTI 68 
 
 ST. PETER'S, ROME, INTERIOR 106 
 
 HOLY FAMILY 140 
 
 SISTIXE MADONNA, RAPHAEL 149 
 
 TRANSFIGURATION, RAPHAEI 181 
 
 RAPHAEL SANTI MEMORIAI 206 
 
 MADONNA, ST. CECELIA, RAPHAEL 235 
 
 LUTHER MEMORIAL ' . . . 262 
 
 PORTRAIT, POPE JULIUS II 268 
 
 LUTHER, ENTRY INTO ERFURTH 340 
 
 LUTHER BURNING THE POPE'S BULI 363
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 JISTORICAL fiction sustains to history the same relation 
 as the vivid, life-like touch of the artist to a portraiture 
 in words. To most persons, the knowledge of history 
 means but an abstraction of dates and incorporeal facts ; 
 but, really, events of history should pass before the mental eye as 
 the moving scenes of a drama, while the main actor in these events 
 should stand out with the distinctness of a life-size portrait. To 
 accomplish this result, several things are needful. In the first place, 
 the period must be one whose events have been world-wide in their 
 influence ; one in which all society has become revolutionized ; 
 one in which humanity, as upon the lava-streams of some eruption, 
 has been lifted out of darkness into light. Invariably, in such a 
 period, all momentous occurrences seem to center about some one 
 hero ; to blend so closely with his personality that we can scarcely 
 decide whether the period made the man, or the man the period. 
 Such a period was the early part of the sixteenth century ; such a 
 hero was Martin Luther. "In him," says Schiicking, "were blended 
 a gifted intellect, an admirable courage, a deep Christian soul. 
 He demanded for his people, his whole oppressed people, the right 
 to exercise freedom of belief; and this human element in the great 
 contest gave him his success." 
 
 But to clothe history with reality the imagination must be aroused. 
 As a rule, however, the historian fails just here; but the sixteenth 
 century with its hero has been unusually fortunate in this respect. 
 As if under the touch of some master artist, the portrait of the stern 
 reformer is evoked by the words of D'Aubigne. He stands out upon 
 the dark background of an age of scholasticism, the figure brought 
 into clear relief by the threatened flames of martyrdom. His attitude 
 is that of fearless, violent assault, his hand raised as if to hurl some
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 deadly weapon at the hydra-headed form of Error rising out of the 
 Lernean Marshes of his surroundings. 
 
 But there is one stage of Luther's life into which history gives us 
 little insight, the. stage of transformation, of mental struggle pre- 
 ceding the resolution to make of himself the reformer he afterward 
 became. "There remains," says Schiicking, "ample room for the 
 play of fancy in filling out this gap," and the play of his fancy has 
 resulted in this work, "Luther in Rome." In accordance with his- 
 tory, the time of the narrative is the year 1510. A few years 
 previous, mankind had witnessed the spectacle of the reign of 
 Alexander Borgia ; but now, upon the highest throne of Christen- 
 dom, sat Pope Julius II., whose one aim was to make the whole world 
 but slaves to the Papal Chair. Unwittingly, however, the Pope was 
 nourishing an influence which must ultimately help to defeat his 
 own plans. Classic pagan literature, with Raphael as its exponent, 
 was already doing much to break the shackles Julius was forging; 
 soon, Luther, goaded to this extreme by the evident worldliness and 
 tyranny of Rome, showed men how to become free indeed. 
 
 But, suffice it to say, Schiicking has furnished, in this volume, the 
 missing views in the panorama of Luther's life. The pleasure de- 
 rived from the work in the original, the translator now gladly shares 
 with the thousands of those who cannot read German. 
 
 If the reader is already familiar with D'Aubigne's " History of the 
 Reformation " and with the " Schonberg-Cotta Family," he will yet 
 derive from the perusal of this volume a far more vivid conception 
 of Luther's character. If, however, this should fall into the hands 
 of one wholly unacquainted with Luther, like the masterpiece of 
 some great artist, he will see in it "a thing of beauty to be a joy 
 forever." 
 
 MRS. EUDOKA LINDSAY SOUTH, 
 THE TRANSLATOR.
 
 t/ 
 
 c^^-^ 
 
 - /
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 EGINO.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BELL-FOUNDER OF ULM. 
 
 N a morning early in the month of May of the year 1510, 
 not far from Rome* on the north side of the city, rode a 
 stately built but youthful personage along a stony path 
 which led between old and broken vineyard walls. It 
 was in the neighborhood of that little, walled-up tunnel which they 
 call the Arco Oscuro. 
 
 The rider wore a coat of black, lined with dark-red silk, and 
 from his cap of black velvet depended a long, white ostrich plume. 
 This ornament was attached to the left side, thus marking the 
 wearer as a Ghibelline; for the Guelph wore his on the right. Upon 
 his breast glittered a golden charm, suspended from a chain of gold ; 
 and as he seemed too young to have earned such a favor as a 
 princely reward for his services in war or in peace, its possession 
 must have been due to high birth. In his broad, glove-encased 
 right hand he flourished a long, white riding-whip ; from his left side 
 hung a long rapier in its great protecting sheath, above which a 
 finely engraved hilt 'protruded. 
 
 This youth, about five and twenty years of age, was the son of 
 a German prince. His name was Egino von Ortenburg. His 
 elder brother was the reigning count in the little German province 
 in which the youthful rider had his home. He had himself been 
 sent to Rome, to carry on a suit in which his house was involved. 
 
 The way which he followed on this pleasure ride led over the 
 ridge of the elevation over which his horse was now passing, onward 
 and downward, till it led into an open country, a bit of the Cam- 
 pagna. Through this, at a distance of five minutes or a little more, 
 one could espy the Tiber, its waters now swollen to the limit of its 
 banks. Still a good stretch before the rider reached the river, he
 
 io LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 came to a well, all walled up and shaded by lofty, old trees. From 
 its mineral waters, this well bore the name of Aqua Acetosa. 
 
 Under the shade of the trees at this well he encountered three 
 living creatures, upon whom he idly let fall his glance, a glance of 
 that fleeting kind which sees yet does not perceive. While the 
 young man, without interest, rides on, let us give to this group the 
 attention which they failed to win from him. It consisted of a 
 young lad, an old man, and an old donkey, all on the far side of a 
 wall about three feet high, which surrounded and supported the 
 mouth of the well. 
 
 We must first give our attention to the donkey, for this mem- 
 ber of the little family bore a pack-saddle, on each side of which 
 appeared two insecurely over-filled baskets. To the burden-bearer, 
 to the over-laden, to the care-oppressed, to the pack-donkey in a 
 family, should the first rank, in every case, be given. 
 
 The donkey was gray, small, and had the soft, mild, and 
 resigned look of one from whom there is always required much 
 action and never any counsel. He saw the steed of the Count of 
 Ortenburg stride past, throwing up his head and snorting upon him, 
 yet by no expression of the countenance did the humble beast 
 betray envy. 
 
 The old man was, like the donkey, small and very ugly. More- 
 over he was very much deformed. He had a nose which seemed to 
 have had the ambition to arrive at a place as quickly as the forward- 
 protruding hump on the breast below it, so it had grown far, far out 
 into the air. This nose (if indeed it was real, and not, as one might 
 have thought, made of pasteboard) expressed a remarkable degree 
 of physical activity, as did also the projecting chin; but the little 
 green-gray eyes disturbed this expression. They had about them 
 something extraordinarily unsteady and shy, thus making more 
 hideous this man with the nut-cracker figure. 
 
 The young lad had curly, blonde hair, and a face browned, or 
 rather yellowed, by sun and dust. Perhaps it needed onty to be 
 washed to make of it a right-pretty, boyish countenance ; although the 
 rather fine-cut features were also irregular, and a little crowded one 
 into another, instead of being disposed in broad, simple lines. He 
 had the hair carefully parted in the middle ; and this, together with 
 the drooping, soft, blue eyes, made his appearance somewhat girlish. 
 
 As the rider passed by the wall surrounding the well, behind 
 which the group was reposing, the hunchback lying upon the
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. ir 
 
 ground, the donkey standing, and the lad resting his elbows upon 
 the wall, his horse shied, perhaps on account of the man's ugliness. 
 It made a spring to one side, and some object fell clattering to the 
 ground. 
 
 Count Egino quieted the animal with his voice, at the same time 
 shortening the reins and bringing him to a halt. Then looking 
 upon the ground, and pointing with his riding-whip, he called to the 
 lad in Italian : 
 
 "You, there, come and pick that up for me." 
 
 It was a little, oblong silver plate toward which he pointed. The 
 bridle of his horse was covered with similar plates, and this one had 
 sprung loose and been hurled to the ground by the movements of the 
 excited animal. 
 
 The youth looked at it without moving. 
 
 The rider turned his horse close to the wall, and swinging his. 
 whip, cried out again : 
 
 "Heh! sluggard, move yourself, and pick up for me that piece of 
 metal." 
 
 "I will not," said the lad, angrily knitting his brows, and looking 
 without other motion into the eyes of the rider. 
 
 In the same instant fell the riding-whip, the stroke being aimed at 
 the face of the boy ; but a sudden movement of the head caused it to 
 strike, instead, the left shoulder. 
 
 Up to this time the hunchback had only turned his head with a 
 certain apathy to see what was going on ; but now he sprang up 
 with the suddenness of a locust, and swung himself with a wonderful 
 agility upon the back of the wall. With the same agility a fearfully 
 large, powerful, hair-covered fist was thrust into the reins of the horse, 
 and it held them as in an iron grasp. The horse attempted to rise upon 
 its hind feet ; the fist held it down as in an iron vise. The rider 
 looked with unconcealed fright upon the face of the hunchbacked 
 creature on the wall before him. The face of this being, transformed 
 by anger and a thirst for revenge, had a somewhat supernatural hid- 
 eousness ; and a supernatural power seemed also, indeed, to lie in the 
 hand which stretched itself out toward the rider, in order to tear him 
 from the horse. 
 
 This would probably also have happened, although Egino was on 
 his guard, and was reaching with his right hand for his dagger, if the 
 lad, pressing his right hand upon his wounded shoulder, had not 
 called out :
 
 12 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Let him alone, Uncle ; let him alone. Do him no harm." 
 
 The boy uttered this in the German speech. The enraged mon- 
 ster seemed, however, accustomed to render to him an involuntary 
 obedience. He let the reins loose, and laughed now at the rider, 
 grinning in his face. His laugh had in it something of the insane, 
 if indeed it did not mean to say : 
 
 "See! I could kill you and crush you to atoms if I wished," and 
 it expressed only joy in this superiority of power. Count Egino 
 quieted his horse, then said, likewise in German : 
 
 "You are Germans fellow-countrymen? Now, then, I am sorry 
 that I have beaten you, my lad, as a good-for-nothing Roman vaga- 
 bond, for which I mistook you. You might, however, with a little 
 friendliness, and a very little inconvenience, have saved me the 
 trouble of dismounting." 
 
 "That would I have done," answered the youth in German, "if 
 you had made the request politely. Now I am glad I didn't do it 
 since you are a German ; for your rude behavior shows that you do 
 not deserve the slightest accommodation from your countrymen." 
 
 Egino looked upon the boy in surprise ; his eye glanced as if 
 inquiringly over the slight, weak form in its simple coat of cloth. 
 Then he replied in a tone of good-humored scolding : 
 
 " Now, now, nothing unkind. If my hand is overhasty, so is your 
 tongue. Let us conclude a peace, and both make it good, I the 
 stroke with the hand ; you your scolding with the tongue. Here is 
 my hand." Stooping over he reached to the boy his right hand. 
 The latter took it, and, appeased, said : 
 
 " I am satisfied, and next time, if you ask me nicely, will pick up 
 what you have lost." 
 
 ."What I have lost?" rejoined Egino, with a fleeting smile; "of 
 that will you find little to pick up. One loses many a good thing, to be 
 sure, on the way from his twentieth to his thirtieth year, especially 
 if this way leads over Rome. But if they are lost they are not to be 
 found again." 
 
 " There is, doubtless, among the things you have lost, either your 
 head, your heart, your calling, or your courage." 
 
 "The devil ! " said Egino, this time looking with real surprise upon 
 the soft, speaking eyes of the boy. " You have, at least, not lost, on 
 your way from Germany here, a precocious mother-wit. I wonder 
 only that, with it, you have made your journey hither on foot. Ger- 
 man mother-wit and German shrewdness stand not at a very high
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 13 
 
 price here, indeed, German things in general, unless it is German 
 money." 
 
 "We come also with German money, even," responded the youth, 
 as with a quiet self-consciousness. 
 
 "With German money ? " 
 
 The hunchback, who, during this conversation, had slipped down 
 from the wall, and propped upon it both elbows, and upon these his 
 head, so that he could stare with still and satisfied grin upon the 
 rider on the other side of the wall, suddenly turned to his young 
 companion. 
 
 " Irmgard ! " cried he, in a sharp, angry tone of reproof. 
 
 " Be still, Uncle ; I know what I am saying." 
 
 " Irmgard ? " said the rider, slowly uttering the name in question- 
 ing astonishment. 
 
 "That is my name," said Irmgard, candidly. 
 
 "That is your name," rejoined Egino, smiling; "and I well, I 
 name myself a blockhead not to have seen at once that you are a 
 girl. I ought to have known that from your eyes. Now I am doubly 
 sorry that I struck you." 
 
 " I am not." 
 
 " You are not ? Wherefore ? " 
 
 "Because it was a rude injury you have committed, and because, 
 as an honorable German, you must now seek to make it good. It is 
 but just that you should be of service to poor, stupid, ugly, dear 
 Uncle Kraps and myself. We come unprotected and alone, my 
 uncle has so willed it, into this strange land, among a strange peo- 
 ple, of whom the more I see the less I like. We should thank 
 Heaven if we find some one who must now advise and help us." 
 
 Egino looked upon the maiden awhile in silence, then threw him- 
 self from the saddle, fastened his horse to the nearest willow, and 
 seated himself upon the wall. Folding his arms upon his breast, 
 while Irmgard leaned upon the wall from the inner side, he said : 
 
 " You are right about that. I am ready to render you aid and 
 counsel, if you need them. To be sure, I am myself not of much 
 consequence here, as I am a foreigner; but I am Count Egino, of 
 Ortenburg, and having been in the city several weeks, I have, at 
 any rate, more friends than you. So tell me, now, what can I do 
 for you ? " 
 
 Irmgard did not appear at all excited to learn that the young man 
 was a person of such distinction. Had she inferred as much from
 
 i 4 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 his appearance, or had her long journey accustomed her not to 
 manifest surprise at anything ? Or did it lie in her character, which 
 showed itself, in general, of a peculiarly quiet and self-possessed kind ? 
 She only replied : 
 
 "We are not so distinguished. We are natives of Ulm. My 
 Uncle Kraps is a bell-founder. He is very clever in his art. He 
 can also mould cannon, culverin, falconet, and other tubular pieces of 
 artillery. In this way he has earned much money, which he has 
 saved up, and added to it an inheritance." 
 
 "Yes, yes, an inheritance," here interposed Uncle Kraps, with a 
 wonderfully sly laugh, which he still continued to himself long after 
 Irmgard had resumed speaking. 
 
 "I am," said she, "an orphan, the daughter of my Uncle's sister. 
 He adopted me ; and since I have been large enough I have nursed 
 him and cared for his house. Therefore his talk was always of tak- 
 ing me out into the world as soon as I should be grown up. He 
 talked incessantly of traveling and going out into the world. He 
 did not like to stay in Ulm ; for years it had been barely endurable 
 to him. 'If the bells travel so can I,' he would say. On Thursday 
 of the last Passion Week he said: 'To-day the bells I have moulded 
 fly to Rome, where the Pope baptizes them. When the spring 
 comes will I also fly to Rome.' ' 
 
 "'We will stay there, Irmgard,' he would say; 'I will see what 
 the bells do next Passion Week in Rome. You will go with me. 
 We will buy a donkey, a donkey and a pack-saddle, with two bas- 
 kets for carrying. It will carry our clothing and my money. With 
 this money I will in Rome become a lord, as good as the town- 
 clerk or the recorder of Ulm. With money one can become a lord 
 in Rome, and that will I do. They have long enough called me 
 here the crooked silver thief, the spit-devil ; long enough has every 
 one who sees me acted as if it cost him the entrance-fee of a jest 
 to dare to look upon me ; as if he must make himself even by some 
 new sally of wit, some word of derision or insult at the expense of 
 my appearance. Long enough ; Irmgard and I have had enough. 
 Now you are grown large I will set out. I will mould no more 
 bells. Those I have moulded are sufficient to toll them all to the 
 grave, or as poor sinners to the gallows, whither they may be 
 going. I will be a lord ! In Rome ! There it may come to pass. 
 The city provost has told me so. One receives a great Latin parch- 
 ment about it, and a title, and a blue hat with a broad silver border
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 15 
 
 on it, or a red one with a gold border. Besides, he receives so much 
 yearly, that he gets richly the desires of his life.' Isn't it true, Uncle, 
 that you have told me all this ? " 
 
 Uncle Kraps nodded his head with an expression of pleasure. 
 
 "Yes, I have said so," he answered. "So it was. Irmgard. But 
 I had rather have the red hat. If my money can bring the red one, 
 I had rather have it red." 
 
 Egino shook his head wonderingly over this remarkable pilgrim. 
 
 "What, then, do you wish to become?" said he, turning to the 
 bell-founder. " President of the Grain-commission ? Secretary of 
 Briefs, or Inspector of Excise? Assessor of the Board of Salt? Door- 
 keeper? Janizary? Stenographer of the Pope ? You could certainly 
 be any one of these, since you are so rich, and there are Germans 
 enough among all these people, in fact, out of all free lands are 
 they, and especially Germany. Pope Julius has just now begun to 
 appoint one hundred new Writers of the Archives ; to obtain that 
 position you need only to pay into the treasury of the Pope seven 
 hundred and fifty scudi." 
 
 "Do you see, Irmgard do you see ?" and Uncle Kraps turned 
 upon the maiden, his face all laughing. "That is just what the city 
 provost told me ; he hasn't lied, as you thought. He has also given 
 me an excellent testimonial of my skill, my good behavior, my hon- 
 orable calling all my life; and now I will go with it to the what 
 did you call the man, my lord ? " 
 
 "The Treasurer of His Holiness." 
 
 " I will go to the Treasurer of the Pope. Bridle the donkey, Irm- 
 gard. The provost has not lied to me. Bridle the donkey, child ; 
 we will now go farther." 
 
 "Then I will beg pardon of the provost," said Irmgard, "for I 
 have always had the fear that he was making sport of you, just as 
 the whole city thought they might dare to do." 
 
 With that she turned to pick up the bridle, which was lying on 
 the ground, and to put it upon the donkey. 
 
 In the meantime Count Egino let his glance pass from the uncle 
 to the niece, and from her back to the uncle. Now his look followed 
 the quiet and graceful movements of the girl, while he said : 
 
 "But you have, as yet, told me only half of your story; and if I 
 am to be your friend and adviser here in Rome, I must know it all. 
 Was it for the sake of safety upon your journey, Irmgard, that you 
 have adopted the garb of a boy ?"
 
 1 6 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " It was not possible to do otherwise," she responded, half turning 
 her back as she busied herself with the donkey. "In order to find 
 safe lodgings we must go always from cloister to cloister. The 
 pious fathers who thus afforded us food and shelter could not have 
 received into their retreat a maiden ; and if, on that account, we had 
 knocked for a night's lodging at some nunnery, the nuns would have 
 set up a great cry over the appearance of this poor Uncle, and have 
 driven him away, though he is not at all captivating. It was neces- 
 sary, you see, that one of us should change sex; and as Uncle 
 Kraps," said Irmgard, with the shadow of a roguish smile, " showed 
 no natural fitness to become a reputable female, I was obliged to 
 become a boy." 
 
 "And a very pretty one at that," said Egino, ever more drawn by 
 this apparition, whose simple artlessness and candor had for him 
 something so much the more pleasing the more it stood in con- 
 trast with the whole nature of the world in which he had lived 
 for months. 
 
 " Will you now, indeed, tear yourself away ? " he continued. " Is 
 your Uncle Kraps, then, in such a hurry to see himself in the blue 
 or red hat ? " 
 
 " You see he is," answered Irmgard, smiling. " We will betake 
 ourselves to the German Wayfarer's Inn. The good monks where 
 we were last night described this place to us, so we can easily search 
 it out. Uncle Kraps finds everywhere the way and path." 
 
 "Well, then," responded Egino, "I will come there to look after 
 you ; and if you need me, find me at the Albergo del Drago, in the 
 Via della Mercede, by San Silvestro. Can you fix all that in your 
 mind ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! Albergo del Drago Via della Mercede, by San Sil- 
 vestro," repeated the maiden. " I shall find myself there if anything 
 should happen which would compel us to go to you for advice. On 
 the way hither we have learned to speak Italian, Uncle and I, for 
 which you should rejoice, Count Egon " 
 
 "Egino Count Egino, from Ortenburg." 
 
 "Count Egino, from Ortenburg. And now farewell. Your horse 
 becomes impatient that you should waste so much time with us 
 humble folk. He is more proud than his master, it seems." 
 
 "That is quite likely, when the master is such a modest fellow," 
 laughed Egino, reaching Irmgard again his hand, bowing to the grin- 
 ning bell-founder, and turning again to remount his horse.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 17 
 
 When he had swung himself upon the horse and ridden some dis- 
 tance, he looked back several times upon his new acquaintances, and 
 saw how they started out. Irmgard walked before ; the donkey fol- 
 lowed ; last, with travel-wounded feet, came hunchbacked Uncle 
 Kraps. 
 
 "A remarkable pair of clients I have won there," said Count 
 Egino, finally, to himself, " won through a blow of my riding-whip." 
 "Wonderful," he continued, as they disappeared out of his sight. 
 " I feel, since that occurred, as if the maiden, this free-spoken Irm- 
 gard, already stands near me as an old acquaintance ; as if, since 
 then, between my soul and hers there were something that binds us 
 closer, the bond of an obligation toward her; or, indeed, that of an 
 old friendship, or, now, let it be what it will, I will do for her 
 what I can. This old bell-founder will buy for himself a title, and 
 a right to go about in stately robes of honor ! As if, on that account, 
 the street gamins will any the less cry after him, ' Ecco pasquinoj or 
 the people the less name him ugly ^sop, although he may have ten 
 times the right to let himself be called Lord Secretary, or Lord 
 Stenographer." 
 
 That Uncle Kraps would soon win for himself such a right, Count 
 Egino did not doubt ; for in Rome, at that time, such was not difficult 
 to acquire. 
 
 The Popes, since the time of Sixtus IV., had adopted a wonderful 
 method of obtaining loans to the state. Our states, when they need 
 money, give bonds with interest coupons. The canonical law, how- 
 ever, forbade the giving or receiving of interest. The Popes gave, 
 instead of a bond, a parchment which conferred a title, an office 
 with all its privileges. The salary of this office represented the 
 interest of the sum paid to obtain it. So, by the payment of a cer- 
 tain number of scndi, one could become, not only, as at present, a 
 creditor, but one of the innumerable, all-important officials and honor- 
 bearers of the state. Let a man even be by birth such an object of 
 ridicule as this bell-founder of Ulm, if it were established that his 
 precious metal consisted of pure stuff, even he could attain to this 
 honor.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PARVA DOMUS; MAGNA QUIES. 
 
 OUNT EGINO had taken a course downward along the 
 Tiber ; at the foot of precipitous, upheaved heights of 
 tufa on his left, he rode upon his beautiful blooded black 
 steed. On the right, before him, rose the arches of the 
 Milvian bridge, still protected by a strong tower, and extending over" 
 the golden flood which swelled and rushed madly roaring beneath. 
 When Egino had reached this, and with it the old Flaminian Way, 
 he followed this road, turning again to the left toward the city. It 
 was alive with pedestrians : with lazy fellows who sat upon donkeys 
 in the shade of a three-cornered roof of old, dirty linen ingeniously at- 
 tached to the saddle ; with women leading children by the hand and 
 carrying great bundles on their heads ; with pilgrims, equestrians, 
 and peasants of the Campagna, who led clumsy oxen before heavily 
 laden wagons, urging them on with long goads. All made a great 
 confusion, crying out and raising a cloud of dust, which Egino would 
 not have encountered had it not been his point of destination was 
 on this Flaminian Way. It was the villa of a friend, which arose on 
 the left, behind the endlessly long walls accompanying the Way, and 
 separating from it the vines and gardens by its side. The villa lay 
 about half way between the Ponte Molle and the Flaminian Gate. 
 At the place where it began, a profusion of blooming roses had 
 thrown themselves over the top of the wall. Cypress and laurel 
 reared their dark green behind it, thus making known an asylum of 
 rest and summer retirement. From the hot, deeply dust-covered 
 earth of the sunny, noise-filled street, through the gray, heavy 
 wooden gate on which Egino knocked, one could not enter this circle 
 of green without refreshing his inner being with a deep inhalation, 
 and feeling in all the fibers of sensation an increased delight in 
 the day. 
 
 18
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 19 
 
 The casino, or dwelling-house of the villa, stood in the background, 
 with its rear moved up close to the steep chain of heights, which 
 here, falling away precipitously, overlooked the valley of the Tiber. 
 It arose three stories above a terrace ; from the terrace led to the 
 right a stairway of stone, into a little, open portico, or pergola, from 
 which was the entrance to the main story of the building. 
 
 It was small, the whole thing. On the frieze over the upper 
 windows, of which there were four, appeared the inscription, "Parva 
 domus ; magna gutes."* 
 
 As he entered the villa, admitted by an old gardener, Egino him- 
 self led his horse into a stall leaning against the inner side of the 
 wall near the gate, a narrow place prepared only for two goats. 
 Then he strode to the casino, already waving from a distance at the 
 two persons whom he saw sitting at the breakfast-table under the 
 .portico. It was a man and a woman. The former gayly returned 
 his greeting with his hand ; the lady stepped to the balustrade of 
 the little hall and cried to him : 
 
 " The cheerful morn brings ever welcome guest." 
 
 Egino hastened up the steps of the terrace and the hall, in order 
 to shake the friendly hands stretched out toward him. He was 
 soon seated between them at the table spread with wine, bread, 
 honey and fruits. The hostess tasted for him the Venetian glass 
 which the host had filled with Monte-Pulciano, and soon they were 
 in the midst of a lively conversation, which derived its tenor from 
 what one might have called the mental mirror of their surroundings. 
 
 In a portico within whose walls old works of statuary, remnants of 
 classic art, have been built up ; in a villa where the eye rests upon 
 evergreen walls of laurel and cypress, while springing fountains cool 
 the air with their restless play ; upon a height from which one sees 
 the golden Tiber flowing, and looks down upon the ruins of heathen, 
 and basilicas of Christian Rome, on such a spot, between esteemed 
 and honored persons, whose souls we love because they are kindred 
 souls, can only one kind of interchange of thought exist, that which 
 mirrors something of the same beauty that has spread its charm 
 over the surroundings. 
 
 '"Mag-na quies f " said Egino. " Have you written that, or some 
 of your predecessors, upon the front of your house, Signor Callisto?" 
 
 "I, after I had brought my wife into this house," answered Signor 
 Callisto,. a finely built man in the thirties, with intelligent features, 
 and a mouth around which a mocking smile was ever imminent, if 
 
 *LittIe house; great quiet.
 
 20 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 not in actual existence, while his eyes, half shut as in a dream, let 
 his glance wander in the distance. 
 
 "Your husband " Egino turned to the young and beautiful wife, 
 who, in her light morning dress, presented the picture of a stately 
 and distinguished Roman lady, only more tender, smaller, and also 
 sweeter than the usual type of Roman beauty "your husband 
 speaks for you great praise, Donna Ottavia, if I may be allowed to 
 translate ' quies' as peace." 
 
 "You but poorly comprehend his derisive smile, Signer Conte 
 Gino," answered Donna Ottavia, "if you take it as an expression of 
 praise for me. It is nothing else but an epigram upon me." 
 
 "An epigram ? And how could that be ? " asked Egino. 
 
 "He will declare," continued Ottavia, looking roguishly at her 
 husband, "that for a long time I -kept him in a sore and stinging 
 pain of the heart, so long as I coquettishly let him sue for me.. 
 Now, since I have given him my hand, has he rest. The heart- 
 flame is extinguished." 
 
 She gave him a light tap on the upper part of the arm. 
 
 "You women are short-sighted," answered the host ; "otherwise 
 would you, in the l magna quies? recognize the greatest compliment, 
 the most brilliant glorification, which a man can inscribe upon a 
 house in which his wife rules " 
 
 "I am of that opinion also," interposed Egino; "for it is next to 
 saying that she rules with quiet sweetness, and makes no noise about 
 it ; she is gentle, she doesn't scold or indulge in anger." 
 
 "And, furthermore," said the host, interrupting him, "it says she 
 has given to her husband the blessed rest of the heart, the rest in 
 the beloved, which comes over us only when we have succeeded in 
 winning the full surrender of a wife, the blissful assurance of pos- 
 sessing her, the affectionate constancy of a true being sacrificing 
 to us her life." 
 
 "And I think," continued Egino, "only the woman with a soul, 
 only the great womanly nature, can give this rest. She is simple in 
 her feeling, and in this simplicity strong. Every noble thing is 
 simple, unchangeable, quiet. Therefore is fidelity the most beautiful 
 virtue ; it is the highest indication of a character. Only the contracted 
 feminine nature, you must know, Donna Ottavia, that I divide 
 your whole sex into two classes, ladies and waiting-maids, only the 
 waiting-maid, with her caprice, her little tricks, her smart play of 
 fickle alluring, then thrusting aside ; her alluring, provoking, and
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 21 
 
 growing angry, in order then to soften down again, once more to 
 withdraw, only she maintains the continual unrest. Especially is 
 this the case when a man has become her sport who himself is a 
 great and simple nature, and who takes such a being, whom he can- 
 not see through, with the full tragic of his own earnest and profound 
 nature. From all this, Donna Ottavia, you see how the inscription 
 of your husband contains a high tribute to your excellence." 
 
 Donna Ottavia shook her head. 
 
 "You take it as a German, Signer Conte. You interpret it ac- 
 cording to your own disposition. I wager my lord and spouse did 
 not think of all this. He is a philosopher, a Stoic, one of those 
 unfortunately enviable ones to whom the world can give nothing 
 more, and from whom it can take nothing, because they believe 
 themselves to have everything within them, and find in their inner 
 world a full sufficiency. So has he understood the 'magna qnies! " 
 
 "You do me wrong," replied Signor Callisto, laughing. "I have 
 never been a Stoic toward you ; when I saw your countenance, there 
 was always as little philosophy in me as in a love ditty that a singer 
 pours forth, accompanied by his lute, under the balcony of his 
 beloved, by the shimmer of the stars of a summer night, by the 
 murmuring of a fountain, and in the fragrance of orange blossoms. 
 Indeed, philosophy was not strong in me in such moments. We 
 men of the south may not be able to know the still, emotion- 
 spinning disposition of the German of which you speak ; but there 
 is living in our natures something different, more powerful, more 
 poignant. It is the inextinguishable longing for the wife from 
 whom our whole nature receives tone and tuning, from whom it 
 becomes eternally filled, thus making our natures musical ; for only 
 music can express this longing. Wherever one of us strikes a musi- 
 cal tone, there also breaks forth this longing in all its might, and 
 therefore our music has always the same purport." 
 
 "Your inscription, then," said Donna Ottavia, interrupting him 
 here, "says nothing more than this : since I have become your wife, 
 this longing no more constrains you to strike the lute, and with a 
 voice of moderate compass and of a culture which leaves much 
 yet to be wished for, to disturb the quiet of the still summer 
 nights." 
 
 All laughed, and Count Egino then said : 
 
 " Let us leave the inscription alone ; let it mean what it may, it 
 shows, in any case, how rich the world is, and how full of meaning
 
 22 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 every single thing in it. One needs only to look around him, as here 
 from this portico, in order to discover a thousand objects which cap- 
 tivate our minds, and set our souls to vibrating ; one needs only to 
 read two words, as the inscription on your house, to find material for 
 an hour's discussion." 
 
 "Until one has learned," interposed Callisto, "to find for the dis- 
 turbed soul the anchor-ground of such a quies, and to let his mind be 
 no more taken captive, but to make himself strong to resist disturb- 
 ing impressions." 
 
 "That is hard to learn," answered Egino. "The wealth of the 
 world, and even of the world which surrounds me here, stirs my soul 
 to its lowest depths, and hurries my mind now to this, now to that 
 form which rises before me here, now in this, now in that realm of 
 thought and feeling. It has about it something distracting. I wish 
 at times to cry out, 'Whence can I go to save myself from this 
 Rome ! ' There is the Old World, with its monuments, its ruins, 
 its broken columns, its mutilated works of marble ; there are the 
 structures of stone reaching high in the air, whose proud outlines 
 fill me with thoughts of the greatness, the mental superiority of 
 the Ancients ; there are the dazzling statues of antique art, the 
 marble figures of gods and heroes, from which the conception of 
 the beautiful, I might say, overwhelms me ! There are all the crea- 
 tions of Christian Rome, its basilicas, its graves of the martyrs, 
 its stone and metal wrought traditions of the most sublime mystery, 
 of the deeds of the incarnate God, who now makes gods of men. 
 There is the Holy Father, surrounded by every earthly splendor, 
 that wonderful man who, in his double nature, belonging half to 
 earth, half to heaven, stands with his feet upon the grave of the 
 Apostles, with his infallible head reaching high above our circle of 
 vision into the clouds of heaven, where the Holy Spirit whispers to 
 him his inspirations. There is the middle point of the world, the 
 point whence the culture of Western humanity goes out, whither 
 their veneration, their thoughts, their cryings for help, flow back. 
 Beneath my steps resound the vaults of the Catacombs, the mine 
 which, silently dug out under the earth of the heathen world, at last 
 scatters this into the air ; beneath my footsteps here rises the dust 
 which perhaps contains the ashes of the Scipios, of the Caesars. In 
 the storm which rages over my head, I hear now the boisterous shout 
 of the common people at the triumphal procession of their emperors ; 
 now the howl of pain from those beaten and dying under the claws
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 23 
 
 of the beasts of the arena ; now the shrill outcry of the mob which 
 destroys the golden statues of Nero. I cannot look upon the rolling 
 waves of the Tiber there but, in imagination, I see the statues of 
 gods which rest upon its bottom ; I cannot see the Aurelian Wall 
 jutting out, but it places before me the armed pretorian host, as they 
 strode over its battlements, their glance turned to the North, whence 
 the armies of Alaric and Theodoric, the gigantic Goths, threateningly 
 approached. Thus aroused, taken by storm, agitated, yes, often in- 
 toxicated, if you would so name it, whence, then, shall come to the 
 soul this profound quiet, this magnet quies?" 
 
 Donna Ottavia had listened in silence to the young man all aglow 
 with his theme ; now she said : 
 
 " You have been thrown a stranger into this world, Signor Conte 
 Gino, and you are young ; what so moves you and will not let you 
 rest may have this influence upon your heart, because this heart is free 
 from thoughts of its own existence. As the flood when the sluices 
 are open pours into an empty channel, so the rich world surround- 
 ing you here pours its influence into your inner being. When you 
 have grown older, and a life of its own has formed itself in the depths 
 of your soul, filling it full, then the pressure of this flood-tide, find- 
 ing no longer a deep and empty channel to fill, ceases of itself ; and 
 if you are then again at home, some loving hand will surely dare to 
 write upon your German balcony what Signor Callisto inscribed for 
 me upon the frieze of our little dwelling." 
 
 "Good Heaven !" exclaimed Egino. "When the heart is so full, 
 do you call it without a life of its own, and altogether empty ? A 
 soul which is inflamed with all the beauty of the world ; a will which. 
 is resolved to weave into its life, as in a garland, only the great and 
 glorious, and a spirit which revels in the blessed foretaste of 'this 
 greatness and glory, do you call this still without a life of its own,, 
 still empty ? " 
 
 " Conte Gino," replied Ottavia, " you are to some extent a poet, 
 and therefore can I not make myself intelligible to you with my 
 thought, which will seem to you .tame. But there are two kinds 
 of poesy, one in our breast, the other in our heart; the one 
 belongs to enthusiastic men, the other to more sober-feeling women ; 
 the one impels to conquer the great and glorious and makes proud, 
 the other teaches to protect, to foster, to help, and makes humble ;: 
 the one feeds itself upon' the great and powerful, the one agitates, 
 the other quiets ; the one looks upon the sun, and with all-control-
 
 24 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 ling hand turns at his will the flame-hoofed span of Phoebus, the 
 other lifts its glance to a beautiful distant star of the night, and, full 
 of renunciation, sees it sink into the dark ocean, and that is the 
 poesy of which I say, that it will also sometime come to you ; for it 
 alone truly fills the heart of man, and brings to him that happiness 
 of rest. You do not understand me, Don Gino ? Go fall in love, 
 then fall a little unfortunately in love, and you will understand 
 me." 
 
 " I thank you for your advice, Donna Ottavia," responded Egino, 
 laughing, " but I think I shall not follow it. I am much too busy 
 for that, and a love, at the same time an unfortunate one, might dis- 
 turb me." 
 
 " What can a young son of a prince, like yourself, have so urgent 
 to do?" 
 
 " Enough in order for me to see the days rapidly, as the fabric of a 
 dream, fly past me. To-day, for example, I have to go through with 
 your husband the manuscript which Signer Callisto has prepared in 
 the process which I carry on here in the ecclesiastical court ; then, 
 after dinner, have I promised to go with some friends to the Colos- 
 seum, where a bull-fight is to take place ; and in the evening, 
 finally, must I repair to the Albergo dei Pellegrini Tedeschi, in order 
 to look after a remarkable fellow-countryman and his pretty niece, 
 whom I met just now at the Aqua Acetosa, as I was riding by. I 
 promised to render them assistance upon their locating in Rome." 
 
 "Because the niece was pretty?" asked Donna Ottavia, smiling. 
 
 " Not on that account, but because I struck her, and wish to make 
 amends for the injury." 
 
 "You have struck her? Impossible. A man strike a woman !" 
 
 "In Italy !" answered Egino. "We Germans are ruder in this 
 respect, I am sorry to say ; although I have not acted so ungallantly 
 as my words might make you believe. The maiden, for the sake of 
 safety on her long journey, had clothed herself as a boy. I asked of 
 this fellow a little assistance, and when it was denied me, I in thought- 
 less anger went at him with my whip the youngster seemed to me 
 so stiffnecked ! I did not know that it was a girl, and that both were 
 German. Am I not right to wish to make it good again ? " 
 
 " That you are, Don Gino ; only don't make it too good," 
 laughed the lady from the house. 
 
 " Now to our work," broke in Signer Callisto, rising ; " I also have 
 much to do. I have to-day to prepare a marriage contract for a
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 25 
 
 couple out of one of the greatest houses of Rome for a remarkable 
 marriage. I must concentrate my mind very closely upon the mat- 
 ter, in order that I may guard the interests of both clients, and that 
 the stronger of the two may not obtain too fully the lion's share." 
 
 "You speak of the Savelli. Will this marriage indeed take place ? 
 The poor girl ! " exclaimed Donna Ottavia. "I beg of you consider 
 her welfare so as to make her independent as possible ; make her 
 remain the mistress of her own fortune, so far as you can accomplish 
 this for her." 
 
 "Certainly I will do what I can," responded Signer Callisto. "We 
 jurists, when we forge such bonds, are not so inexorable as the 
 priests, who, because they themselves cannot have a wife, make for 
 others chains of iron which cannot be broken. But now come, 
 Signer Conte, to our business." 
 
 With these words the lawyer opened the door leading to the 
 interior of the house, in order to conduct Egino into his study, and 
 there to lay before him what he had written and done as his attorney 
 at the Roman court in the affair which had brought the young 
 German to Rome.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IRMGARD. 
 
 N hour before Ave Maria, Egino went to the German 
 Wayfarer's Inn, which lay not far from the Piazza 
 Navona, in a narrow and dirty street where, later, the 
 German Hospital arose. There stood at this time the 
 national church, Santa Maria del Anima, built by the contributions 
 of Germans and Dutch. Begun in the Jubilee year 1500, it now 
 approached completion. Near by lay the inn. In this old, many- 
 storied building Egino had to search long, to grope through dark 
 corridors, till he reached a large but dark chamber with a single 
 window looking out upon the narrow street. In this room, two of 
 the three new acquaintances formed at Aqua Acetosa, Irmgard and 
 Uncle Kraps, had during this interval really found shelter. 
 
 Uncle Kraps sat at the window ; he had upon a little table near 
 him a straw-covered bottle of the clear wine of Orvieto and a plate 
 with slices of bright yellow anise-bread, and upon his grotesque 
 countenance lay the expression of unspeakable delight and satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 In spite of the warm weather, Uncle Kraps had the window shut. 
 He saw through the little panes of glass the front of the house on the 
 opposite side of the narrow street ; still he had his delight in these 
 panes, through which he could look as if he were a man of rank. In 
 the North, at that time, they were indeed still a costly article ; in 
 England, a Duke of Northumberland, when he would leave one of 
 his castles, had his window-panes taken out and packed away, that 
 they might be safer in his absence. At home, in Ulm, Uncle Kraps 
 had not known such a luxury. There, the cathedral and some 
 houses of the richest patricians had glazed windows, but the common 
 citizen had wooden shutters before the cross-bars, which he could 
 open when he wished to have light or to look out. 
 
 26
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 27 
 
 The German donkey must have found a stall somewhere else, 
 where he, in the companionship of his Roman brethren, could 
 amply enrich his silent meditation. The baskets which he had 
 borne stood in a corner of the room; just as Egino entered, Irmgard 
 shut up a closet in which she had stored a part of their contents. 
 Irmgard had not yet laid aside her male attire. 
 
 " It is kind of you, Count Egino, that you really already to-day 
 come to look after us," said she, coming forward to meet him. 
 "You find us as well fixed as we could expect, and Uncle Kraps 
 is well satisfied that we are at our destination. He has found here 
 in the house a wine, supported by which, even though he must 
 remain during his life a bell-founder, even if they would make noth- 
 ing else out of him, he well, the drink rewards him already for his 
 pilgrimage to Rome." 
 
 "And you," said Egino, "you have, in the first hours, had so 
 much of the glory of Rome to look upon, you have not found 
 time to change yourself back to a girl." 
 
 "That is about so," answered Irmgard, carrying a chair to 
 the window for Egino. " I have wandered a little while through 
 the city, in order to satisfy my curiosity." 
 " Alone ? " 
 
 "Alone. Uncle Kraps was too much fatigued. It was unendur- 
 able to me, after we for weeks had wandered, wandered day after 
 day without rest, up valleys and down, to be obliged now suddenly 
 to sit still in this room and dream the hours away. I was like the 
 tolling bell, which swings itself out slowly, and cannot suddenly 
 stand still." 
 
 "And now, as in a tolling bell, does there not hum within you 
 the noise and bustle of the populous city, and is not your head 
 in a whirl from all that you have seen ? " 
 
 "The city is populous enough, and a gay crowd upon the streets; 
 at home it is not much worse at the time of a masked procession or 
 at the carnival play. I have seen peasants in divers-colored garb, 
 .and beautiful, stately women with ornaments of gold in their ears 
 and around their necks, but with torn skirts, and leading dirty chil- 
 dren by the hand. I have seen many kinds of monks and clergy- 
 men in different habits, as if they must put to the test what cut or 
 what color is most according to the taste of the beloved God or most 
 conducive to piety; also cardinals, who were all red, and sat upon 
 magnificent steeds, and had marching near them an armed body-
 
 28 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 guard, wild fellows, country summoners, with rifles upon their 
 shoulders and long, clanging swords. I met one procession from 
 which I ran. There were two long rows of men in light-blue linen 
 frocks with capes, which were thrown forward over their heads, and 
 hung down to their breasts ; there were holes cut out for the eyes, 
 through which they looked. That frightened me, I cannot tell you 
 how much ; they looked like the loathsomely diseased creatures 
 which, at home, slip around the hospital near our town. So fright- 
 ful ! Why do they disguise themselves so ? " 
 
 "They are a brotherhood," replied Egino ; "they make a united 
 penitential journey, or accompany funeral processions, criminals on 
 the way to execution, or the holy Bambino, the Christ-child, when it 
 is carried to the sick to perform some miracle " 
 
 "And one time," said Irmgard, interrupting him, "I met a troop 
 of soldiers, who surrounded a long train of many yoke of wild oxen, 
 which were dragging along great heavy cannon upon huge wheels. 
 Then there came to me a thought, Count Egino, which you may 
 know how to explain to me. If our Holy Father now must have 
 cannon, soldiers, a country and subjects, why does he not then rule 
 the whole Christian world ? Such an infallible man must understand 
 it still better than all kings ; and why not chase away these stupid, 
 fallible kings, and obey only him ? " 
 
 " You are right, Irmgard," answered Egino, laughing ; " he needs 
 only to proclaim it as an article of faith. I fear, however, the 
 princes of the Christian world would not believe in this dogma. 
 Mankind now are in such a state that they yield to dogmas very 
 willingly the price of their understanding, their better judgment, 
 their mother-wit, but not their profits or a productive piece of land." 
 
 " Let it be so, and it is not our business to decide it," responded 
 Irmgard, who, while she spoke, had stationed herself with her arms 
 upon the back of the chair in which Uncle Kraps sat, and looked 
 with unembarrassed glance upon Egino, who had taken his place 
 near the uncle's table. "Although," she continued, jestingly, "it 
 would be a good thing for Uncle and his art, for bells would rise in 
 value." 
 
 " So they would," replied Egino ; " but now tell me further what 
 you have seen. Were you in St. Peter's ? Did you not see somewhere 
 a great and beautiful monument of the past ? Do you know I find 
 you quite lukewarm, even cool, to have spent your first day in 
 Rome?"
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 29 
 
 "Does it seem so to you? Perhaps you are right, and I am in- 
 deed simple, that I cannot wonder more over all such things. I be- 
 lieve it has been my fault all my life long, that no proper joy comes 
 over me when I see those things over which clever men often break 
 out into great rejoicing that their eyes are permitted to behold them. 
 Uncle Kraps says I would have been the right wife for the strong 
 Michel, who wished to learn fear though I can fear already, but not 
 wonder. I think if I should be obliged to wonder over something, 
 I should have to begin with the sun, the moon, the stars, with the 
 mountains and the blue heavens stretched above them, and not with 
 the works of men. Where should I there, however, find an end ? " 
 
 " Does not the work of men, even when it is beautiful and great, 
 make your heart beat faster ? " asked Egino. 
 
 Irmgard shook her head. 
 
 " I am too stupid to decide whether or not it is beautiful or great. 
 My heart beats faster only when I hear of something right, brave, and 
 good a man has done ; and most rapidly and joyously when I see I 
 have made this deformed, ugly old Uncle Kraps so thoroughly de- 
 lighted and at home in these four walls. When I think how mean 
 and heartless men often were toward him, how utterly alone he is 
 in the world, and no one is his friend, and nothing gives to him a 
 proper sense of joy when I then care for him, and see a smile of 
 happiness spread over the old, ugly, dark-embrowned features, then, 
 indeed, my heart beats higher. Isn't that so, old Uncle ? " she con- 
 tinued, smiling and bending over him, and laying her temples upon 
 the gray, shaggy locks of the little monster sitting there with the 
 grin of an idiot upon his visage. " That is the best happiness when 
 we sit at home in quiet contentment ! What care we then for men, 
 what mean thing they say to mock us, or what evil they do to harm 
 one another, or even what they build, paint, and bring to perfection 
 of the great or beautiful which we do not understand ? " 
 
 Egino looked at her a little moved, indeed, but more astonished 
 it was so far removed from his manner of feeling, so narrow-souled, 
 so contracted. Yet there was something in it for which he dared 
 no't condemn it ; a something that Donna Ottavia need only to 
 hear it, and she would, perhaps, have shown him therein a new kind 
 of poesy. 
 
 "But now," began Irmgard, again, "I have already spoken too 
 long of myself, and if it is not indeed too bold, I would like to say 
 it is now your time, Count Egino, to tell to your countrymen a little
 
 30 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 of what leads you to Rome ; who are your people at home ; whether 
 you intend to remain here long ; whether, perhaps, it is your 
 purpose, as a younger son of your house, to dedicate yourself to the 
 church, and " 
 
 "Dedicate myself to church ! " broke in Egino, shaking his head. 
 "Truly that is not my intention ; I have not been educated to that. 
 In Bologna I have for three years studied law, along with many 
 others of the German nobility ; but when they returned home over 
 the Alps, an elder brother of mine, now ruling, sent me here to 
 Rome to carry on a great, complicated suit which has been brought 
 to the Roman Rota, the highest court of justice in Christendom, if 
 you have ever heard of it in your life before." 
 
 Irmgard shook her head. " No, " she said ; "and on what account 
 is this suit instituted ? " 
 
 "On account of a contention with the order of Augustines over 
 .all kinds of right to an estate bequeathed to the monks, which is put 
 in fee by Belfried of Ortenburg." 
 
 " With an order ? And do you hope to win it here in Rome ? " 
 
 " Why not ? We believe we are in the right, and always hitherto 
 that is something " 
 
 "Not much," here put in Uncle Kraps, distorting his face. He 
 had listened very attentively to the conversation during its progress, 
 looking first at Irmgard, then at the young count. " If the monks, 
 who are your opponents, see that you have a right, they will 
 immediately drive it out of the case with their incense." 
 
 "Their incense cannot do everything. One of the three holy 
 kings brought to the manger frankincense ; another, myrrh ; and the 
 third, gold. I do not think St. Joseph looked upon the last most 
 unfavorably." 
 
 "Yes, yes, gold if you have enough of that," nodded Uncle 
 Kraps, grinning. "There is usually none too much of that in the 
 pocket of German princes." 
 
 " Uncle Kraps ! " exclaimed Irmgard, much shocked. 
 
 " Let him talk. What he says is indeed true," said Egino, 
 interrupting her. " But when money must be had, it is always to'be 
 found. God be praised ! that is not my care, but my brother's. 
 Besides, it is a help to us that our opponents have sent here a fair- 
 thinking, learned, and quite prudent man." 
 
 " A member of the order which is your antagonist here ? " asked 
 Irmgard.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 31 
 
 "A member of the order," answered Egino. "A monk still 
 young ; he is from the cloister of Wittenberg, and is called Brother 
 Martin." 
 
 "And a learned, intelligent opponent rejoices you ? " 
 
 " Certainly, for he is an honest German soul, who always contends 
 -with an open visor, and from whom I have no Italian artifice to 
 guard against. I shall, I think, immediately come to an agreement 
 with him. The more intelligent and shrewd a man is, so much the 
 better it is to have with him a dispute or contention ; only with the 
 stupid and weak-minded must one guard himself against falling into 
 strife. And now farewell. I have now seen that, for the beginning, 
 you are very well provided for. And if Uncle Kraps finds hin- 
 drances or difficulties in exchanging his good German coin for a blue 
 or a red official hat, then come to me, and I will take him, if every- 
 thing else fails, even to that opponent of mine, Brother Martin. He 
 must then help us ; and he can, for his order is always the sacristan 
 of the papal chapel, whereby the pastorship in the Vatican is 
 pledged. There we have the most effective tie." 
 
 "And you believe, at your wish, this brother, your opponent, 
 would be inclined " 
 
 "Just because I am his opponent," said Count Egino, laughingly 
 interrupting her. "He is" an evangelical man, who has felt the 
 command, 'Love your enemies.' You should only first see what 
 confidential and affectionate enemies we are. Now may God 
 protect you, both of you. Do not let the uncle drink too much ; 
 otherwise could his German inoffensiveness be injured by this bright 
 yellow Italian stuff; it is not so harmless as it appears. What 
 were harmless in this beautiful sunny land ! Be careful of yourself 
 also, Irmgard." 
 
 He nodded to Uncle Kraps with the head, reached Irmgard his 
 hand, and strode with clanging spurs loudly and quickly over the 
 stone floor of the chamber. 
 
 Irmgard stood long and listened, as the firm, knightly tread re- 
 sounded from the walk without. 
 
 "Why do you stand there so and listen, Irmgard ?" asked Uncle 
 Kraps, looking at her. " That is a fool ! Good-natured, but a fool ! 
 He praises his opponent, the monk, who will take the advantage of 
 him. He has struck you with his whip, and now he demeans him- 
 self in a friendly manner. In this way he means to make good 
 what he has done. He is a fool, Irmgard ! "
 
 32 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Irmgard looked at her uncle with a countenance upon which 
 great perplexity displayed itself. 
 
 " Are you in earnest ? " she exclaimed. 
 
 " Do you think otherwise ? Can you forget it ? " 
 
 She was silent. 
 
 " Forget ? " she answered; then, after a long pause, as if arousing 
 herself out of deep thought : " No ! I do not believe a maiden ever 
 forgets such a thing. But by not forgetting, I mean other than what 
 you mean, Uncle." 
 
 With that she went into an adjoining room, in order, at last, to 
 lay aside her male attire, which she now suddenly, as if in impatient 
 eagerness, threw from her.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NOTIONS OF A GERMAN GIRL. 
 
 N the next day, in the afternoon, Egino repaired again to 
 the Albergo dei Pellegrini Tedeschi. 
 
 When he entered the room of his German friends, he 
 found Irmgard in her own proper dress. She blushed as 
 she saw him suddenly and unexpectedly enter ; and this blush made 
 her very pretty in her dark velvet cap, beneath which her rich blonde 
 hair showed itself in short, curly locks : she had really cut it short 
 for the sake of the journey. A brown bodice, trimmed with narrow 
 black velvet, and a skirt similarly bordered, displayed her form to 
 advantage. It was all very simple, but Egino found her much prettier 
 than he had found her yesterday. 
 
 " I come," said the young man, reaching her his hand and nodding 
 to her uncle, " because the thought came to me it would be best to 
 take you to an intelligent and benevolent lady whom I know, and 
 who is certainly in the best condition to give you good advice as to 
 how you shall begin to make yourself safe here, and adapted to your 
 surroundings." 
 
 "That is extremely kind in you," responded Irmgard, much re- 
 joiced. 
 
 " You have, as yet, rented no dwelling for yourself ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Well, then, come ! Donna Ottavia Minucci, to whom we go, is 
 the wife of an attorney, of a prominent lawyer ; she is a Roman lady 
 who knows her native city, and will receive you with pleasure. Are 
 you ready ? " 
 
 " You, sir and you yourself will conduct me ? " 
 
 " W r ould you otherwise find her ? " 
 
 Joyously excited, Irmgard made herself ready to go out. She 
 brought out a pocket, which she fastened with a silver hook to her 
 girdle ; then a pair of gloves ; a kerchief, which, on account of the 
 
 33
 
 34 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 warm day, she did not need, and which the German fashion allowed 
 her to throw over her arm. She then bade Uncle Kraps good-bye. 
 
 " Watch yourself well, Uncle," she said, " and do not break any of 
 our things. Don't forget, either, to pour water into your wine, when 
 you drink. May God protect you, and not let the time become long 
 to you." 
 
 She started out, and Egino followed her. 
 
 On the street she moved along rapidly and in silence. The Ger- 
 man maiden was noticed by many men whom she met. The blonde 
 beauty evidently struck them ; they stared her boldly in the face ; 
 made loud remarks about her; remained standing to gaze after -her. 
 Egino was several times on the point of trying to teach these shame- 
 less creatures better, but Irmgard, with flying foot, drew him 
 farther on. 
 
 When they reached the Porta del Popolo she drew a breath of re- 
 lief. She let her bright glance sweep over the landscape without. 
 
 " The mountains are beautiful. Are those trees palms, there, on 
 that height ? " she asked. 
 
 " No ; they are sweet pines. The palm does not grow in Rome," 
 replied Egino. "As an atonement, however, it has the laurel." 
 
 " Out of that they wreathe garlands for victors," responded 
 Irmgard. " That is nothing to girls and women, who can deserve 
 only a palm ; for them, indeed, nothing is provided here. Rome 
 appears to me, in no respects, a good place for them," she remarked, 
 perhaps still under the impression of what she had just experienced. 
 " I wished this morning to enter a chapel, but they rudely thrust me 
 back, because I was a woman." 
 
 "To that," said Egino, shrugging his shoulders, "you must be 
 reconciled, Irmgard ; there are many places here you must not dare 
 to enter, for they are too holy for the foot of a woman." 
 
 " Men, then, are purer and more sinless ! See here, if I do not 
 wonder over your monuments and great ruins, these are things 
 over which I do wonder. Oh ! there are so many things in the faith, 
 over which I wonder. For example, that they always say the Saviour 
 has suffered so infinitely much for us sinners, and taken upon him- 
 self almost all the sorrow of the world." 
 
 " Doesn't it seem so to you, then ? " 
 
 " You think, now," said Irmgard, looking timidly at Egino, " that I 
 am a veritable heretic." 
 
 "No, no ; speak on, Irmgard."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 35 
 
 "Well, then, I think one could speak of suffering only when he 
 had suffered deeply in his inner nature ; when he had been deceived 
 by a woman whom he loved ; when he had been forced to look upon 
 the gradual moral degradation and destruction of an only son, who 
 had been his sole hope ; or when he had found his beloved daughter 
 in the arms of vice ; or when he, poor and infirm, had been unable to 
 procure bread for a group of hungry children. That would have 
 been the real suffering of the world, an anguish of soul. To be put 
 to death for the sake of convincing men, is a misfortune, a suffering 
 of the body ; and who would not take that upon himself, if, thereby, 
 he can redeem all mankind, pour out an unspeakable happiness upon 
 all present and coming generations, yes, even make God himself 
 happy, who need no more be angry on account of old, hereditary sin ? 
 I mean the Saviour must not have suffered, but have been always 
 very happy in thought over all that he was able to accomplish for 
 man through his dying and remaining dead but the short space of 
 three days. I speak foolishly enough, no doubt ; but you yourself, 
 Count Egino, would you not die willingly, not only in appearance, 
 till the third day, but in earnest, forever, if you knew that thereby 
 you could redeem this entire holy Roman kingdom from all its 
 misery ? Would you not joyously go to your death, as a true man 
 does for his fatherland ? " 
 
 "That I would," assented Egino, nodding. 
 
 "And then," continued Irmgard, warmly, "the clerical men here, 
 where they must think most of the suffering of the Master, live in 
 such full enjoyment of life. What magnificence is lacking to the 
 Pope " 
 
 " To be sure, to be sure," put in Egino. "When he, surrounded by 
 his guard, goes in procession through the city, borne aloft on his 
 steed, amid the clangor of bells and the thunder of cannon, there is 
 no one who, in spirit, sees looking over his shoulders the pale, 
 anguish-stricken, sorrow-filled countenance of a sufferer. Also those 
 who have died for father-land or humanity, have always gone to their 
 death rejoicing; and still could no one of them, as did Christ, view 
 with the glance of omniscience what salvation lay in his death for 
 the humanity of all times. Thus," continued he, smiling, "could we 
 explain to ourselves so as to understand it why the Pope lives in 
 such splendor and joy." 
 
 " Yes, yes," continued Irmgard ; "but one thing is still harder for 
 me to comprehend, that is, why God has created the lowly and poor.
 
 36 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Here upon the earth is only misery for them, and they cannot come 
 into heaven, because they have not the money and the time to make 
 pilgrimages, to procure masses, to purchase indulgences, to pray the 
 whole day, or to give anything anywhere to the churches for that 
 purpose, and thus win heaven." 
 
 " But all these are dangerous thoughts for a girl, Irmgard." 
 
 "I know that," said Irmgard, earnestly ; "but if they come to me, 
 willing or unwilling, I must think them out." 
 
 " And do you also, then, speak them out ? " 
 
 "No ; I keep them to myself." 
 
 There lay in this answer an expression of confidence in Egino, of 
 which Irmgard suddenly became conscious, for she blushed and grew 
 silent. 
 
 They came to the villa. Donna Ottavia led them to a seat in the 
 shade of a grove. 
 
 The young maiden from Germany awakened in her a lively inter- 
 est. She had Irmgard relate the story of her life as minutely as she 
 was able with what readiness of Italian speech she had acquired up- 
 on her journey, but which was even now diminished. Then Irmgard 
 spoke to her of the several points in which she wished advice and 
 information in regard to Roman customs of every-day life, from the 
 chief things of dwelling and washing, down to the preparation of 
 broccoli and artichokes. 
 
 "There is, however, nothing in this of interest to you, Conte 
 Gino," said Madame Ottavia, laughing over it. " You see in the 
 Roman earth only the dust of Scipios and Gracchi ; for you, there 
 spring forth out of this ground only the shades of Horace and Taci- 
 tus. That also cabbage and other vegetables grow out of this soil, 
 that the descendants of the Scipios must trouble themselves with 
 the cleaning of their soiled linen, only destroys for you the illusion." 
 
 "Of course," responded Egino, gayly, "to some extent, though 
 not so much now as at first since you have spoken to me of a 
 poesy which may accompany us even while gathering vegetables or 
 washing soiled clothing. What your lecture did not accomplish, the 
 words of Irmgard have finished. She has given me the example of 
 being astonished at nothing, and thereby has poured water upon my 
 flame. But, while you are conversing together, I will go speak to 
 your husband." 
 
 " Do so," said Donna Ottavia ; " he wishes to see you, as he has a 
 favor to ask of you, Conte Gino."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME, 37 
 
 Egino left the ladies, and sought Callisto in his study. 
 
 " I will not disturb you," said he to the lawyer, who was bent over 
 parchments and papers. " I will go so soon as I have learned from 
 you wherein I may be able to serve you." 
 
 "You can, indeed, be of service to me, Count Egino," responded 
 Signer Callisto. " You can do me a favor, in case you are not afraid 
 of a little trouble, and do not object to becoming somewhat acquainted 
 here with a member of the house of Savelli ? " 
 
 "Neither one nor the other is the case." 
 
 " Well, then, to-morrow evening I have to appear before the Duke 
 of Aricia, in order to witness the signature of a marriage contract, 
 which I have prepared at his request. On that occasion I should 
 like to know that at least one of the witnesses is attached to me, and 
 inclined, under all circumstances, to step upon my side. You can- 
 not guess how stormy it often becomes in such scenes, where there 
 is a final decision over the 'mine and thine' to be made how 
 well it is for the lawyer to have near him a trusted and reliable 
 friend." 
 
 " I am ready, with pleasure ; but there must be something ex- 
 ceptional about the affair that you do not prefer one of your Roman 
 friends." 
 
 " Now, for one time, I prefer such a foreign, unembarrassed, inde- 
 pendent friend as yourself ; one who has nothing to fear and nothing 
 to expect from the people. Is it agreeable to you ? " 
 
 " You honor me with the request, and you may depend upon me." 
 
 " Can I come to get you to-morrow, an hour before Ave Maria ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; I shall be ready to go any direction with you." 
 
 " So be it. I hope it will awaken your interest to cast a glance 
 upon the domestic affairs of the house of Savelli." 
 
 " Without doubt ! And now you shall not be longer interrupted 
 by me. I know that you wish to work. Also, I shall expect you to- 
 morrow. Shall I," added Egino, smiling, " be mounted on my steed, 
 armed and equipped on account of the scenes to which you refer 
 at a marriage ? " 
 
 " No, no ; there is no need of that. I have made a wrong impres- 
 sion if you think that. There will be no warfare demanded, only an 
 opportunity where well, where four eyes can see more than two ; 
 where two men can think more conclusively, and better oversee the 
 transaction than one. And in case it should be said to me, ' Change 
 that, or insert this,' I might not be alone when I must say, 'I dare 
 
 ,'587693
 
 38 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 not ; it is not possible ! ' You may take your horse, however ; I 
 shall take mine, for the road is long for me." 
 
 " Well, then, till to-morrow." 
 
 The friends extended to each other the hand, and Egino went to 
 find his protegee in the garden, and accompany her back. 
 
 When he came to the two women, Donna Ottavia said : 
 
 "What your countrywoman, Irmgard, needs next, we have, in 
 this interval, fortunately found, a suitable dwelling with honest 
 people for herself and her uncle. She must only know how to 
 find the way to the Quirinal Hill. There, behind the baths of 
 Constantine, and near to the wall which incloses the garden of che 
 Colonna, lies the little house of a widow named Giulietta. She 
 occupies it with her son Beppo, an excellent young man, who 
 supports himself as an artist. Giulietta, who was once my maid, and 
 then married a mechanic, a dependent of the Colonna, has said to 
 me that she wishes to rent two rooms of her house to well-recom- 
 mended foreigners. There will your countrymen find the best 
 reception, if they come saying I sent them." 
 
 " How thankful I am to you ! " exclaimed Irmgard, rising. 
 
 " Greet Giulietta for me, and also Beppo, the honest fellow," said 
 Ottavia, extending the hand to her. 
 
 With the promise that after some time she would come and report 
 to Donna Ottavia how she had disposed of herself, Irmgard took 
 leave, and Egino accompanied her back to Uncle Kraps, who, fortu- 
 nately, this time, during their absence, had perpetrated no kind of 
 mischief. 
 
 " When he is left alone at home some hours together, he always 
 either breaks some utensil, throws away a lamp, or tears up some 
 article of furniture, in order well, he is like a bear, so strong and 
 clumsy," said Irmgard, laughing. 
 
 Egino left her with the promise that, on the next morning, he 
 would send his servant Gotz to guide her to Giulietta's, on the 
 Quirinal.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 |T was on the following day, an hour before Ave Maria. 
 The lawyer from the " Parva domus" had been punctual. 
 Riding upon a modest, but well-fed pony, he appeared 
 in Via della Mercede in front of the Albergo del Drago. 
 
 Here Count Egino's servant led to and fro his master's beautiful 
 German thoroughbred, ready saddled and bridled. 
 
 When, now, Egino stepped out at the door of the Dragon Inn, 
 booted, armed with the long dagger, and even then drawing on the 
 long gloves of soft leather, Signer Callisto thus accosted him : 
 
 " Truly it is very foolish in me to start out with such a witness as 
 you." 
 
 "Wherefore, Signer Legista ? Do you think you will not obtain 
 sufficient honor in such company ? " answered Egino, swinging him- 
 self into the saddle. 
 
 " No," responded the lawyer, setting his horse in motion, while 
 Egino rode at his side; "just the contrary. You are too stately a 
 personage, with your proud and beautiful German head, and your 
 entire self as if you were a prince from the blood of the old Gothic 
 kings, such a grandson of Alaric ; and your horse, now, with his 
 trappings all glittering. But you leave your servant at home ? " 
 said Callisto, interrupting his speech and looking around as if 
 anxious. 
 
 "I leave my excellent Gotz at home, as usual," answered Egino, 
 " when he does not thrust himself upon me, because he thinks, with- 
 out him, I shall be fallen upon, robbed, and carried away by bandits, 
 as a child whom the gypsies steal. To-day, fortunately, I have paci- 
 fied him in regard to it. He thinks if I ride thus alongside of jus- 
 tice, violence can have no hold upon me. Besides, he is tired since 
 he has assisted my German countrymen to remove from their pil- 
 grim quarter up on the Ouirinal you know, to that woman Giuli- 
 etta, whom your lady recommended to us." 
 
 39
 
 40 LUTHER IA r ROME. 
 
 "Now, so much the better," said Callisto. "The business is such 
 that I do not wish that my witness attract the attention of the 
 people with whom we have to do. One need not force investigation 
 as to who you are before you have signed the document which we 
 should execute." 
 
 " You appear to me to enter upon this business with great dis- 
 trust, Signor Callisto. Whither, indeed, are you bringing me? Is 
 this the way to Monte Savello ? " 
 
 " I am bringing you to Santa Sabina." 
 
 " On the Aventine ? That is far. And what business have we in 
 the cloister ? " 
 
 "We are not riding to the cloister of Santa Sabina, but to the 
 house of the Savelli, lying adjacent to it." 
 
 " But the Savelli live on Montanara, in their palace on the The- 
 atre of Marcellus on Monte Savello, as they call it." 
 
 " That is true ; and because they dwell there, it is seldom they 
 have ordered me into their strong castle, which lies alone up there 
 on the Aventine, by Santa Sabina." 
 
 "To a marriage ? " 
 
 " To a marriage. You must confess that the well-arranged dwell- 
 ing palace would be a better and more commodious stage for such a 
 family event of a joyous kind." 
 
 "Perhaps," rejoined Egino, "there is more room in the castle; 
 perhaps the old structure includes the old house chapel, which 
 since the times of their fathers, has always served for such occasions 
 in the house of Savelli ; or there is a similarly good reason which 
 urges them to choose it." 
 
 Callisto shook his head. 
 
 " I think you would yourself not consider it so innocent, if I should 
 relate to you something concerning the bride and bridegroom." 
 
 "Well, relate it." 
 
 " The bride is a creature over whose beauty those who have seen 
 her seem to be carried away. I have not seen her, and can say 
 nothing about it. But I know she is the last descendant of an old 
 and rtoble, perhaps even a royal, race. She is descended from the 
 Corrados of Anticoli, out of the Sabine Mountains. She is called 
 Corradina, and her hand controls a large estate." 
 
 " And the bridegroom ? " asked Egino. 
 
 "The bridegroom ! That's the thing. The bridegroom is adapted 
 to her about as a boar to a white hind. Not that he has yet much of
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 41 
 
 the boar about him. Alas ! no ; Luca Savelli is wasted away by his 
 dissolute life, rotten in all his bones ; a fellow such that, when you 
 see him, you will say he appears as if he had been dipped in the 
 poison suds of sin which flows together in the great pool called 
 Rome, and then washed by the Devil with his dirty broth. He was 
 a friend of Caesar Borgia, till Caesar Borgia, found him too full of 
 vice, and chased him from Rome. Thereupon, with a company of 
 bandits, he has tyrannized a long time over the neighborhood of Nemi 
 and Genzano, and now we have him here, broken and befouled 
 through and through, and bridegroom of the beautiful Corradina. 
 What do you say to that, Count Egino ? " 
 
 "That it makes me pity the poor creature from the bottom of my 
 heart." 
 
 "You must also know another thing; namely, the Lady of Anti- 
 coli is a ward of the Duke of Aricia. You know the Duke of Aricia 
 is the head of the house of Savelli." 
 
 "And is it he who compels his ward to marry this monstrous 
 Luca Savelli ? " 
 
 "I think so," responded Callisto. "Luca Savelli is his second 
 son. The oldest, the heir, is married to a Colonna of Palliano. 
 You see he is already provided for. And for Luca Savelli, who has 
 long ago squandered his paternal inheritance, some provision should 
 now be made." 
 
 " I had far rather carry off to some ogre the bride who is to be 
 thus sacrificed," said Egino, "than, as you request me, lend a hand 
 to forging the chains which shall bind her. Why do you lend a 
 hand to such a purpose ? " 
 
 " I ? Am I not the notary and legal adviser of the house ? What 
 better would it have been if I had withdrawn my services ? Another 
 would have been found to carry out everything according to their 
 desires. But you may be assured I shall do all that I can for the 
 protection of the poor maiden. Into the contract which the Duke 
 of Aricia has bidden me draw up, I have brought seemingly quite 
 harmless expressions and clauses, which yet allow to her the most 
 beautiful play, if she at any time should come before a court of 
 justice and have a clever lawyer point these out. I will keep my 
 eyes open, and if Corradina lets fall a word which betrays want of 
 willingness on her part, it shall not fall to the ground. You see, 
 just for this reason will I not allow any dependent servant or client 
 of the house of Savelli, or yet one of Signor Luca's bandits, or only,
 
 42 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 perhaps, some corruptible, easily shaken Roman, thrust himself upon 
 me as a witness, I have begged of you to accompany me." 
 
 "Truly, you could have asked no one who is more ready and will- 
 ing to become the saviour of this pitiable Corradina, and to break 
 Luca Savelli's rotten bones for him ! " cried Egino, greatly excited. 
 
 " I hope you will not fall in love with her, as you seem already far 
 on the road to do," said Callisto, smiling. 
 
 " You must at least concede that you have done all you could to 
 lead me to such a step." 
 
 " Could you take as a companion for yourself a woman not of your 
 people, an Italian woman ? " 
 
 " I seek in a woman, not my blood, but my soul. If I find a soul 
 which is like my own, I care very little whether there exist in her 
 body an Italian, a Turk, or a German." 
 
 "But your princely relations by blood there on the other side of 
 the Alps ? " 
 
 " I think what is good enough for a Savelli is good enough for an 
 Ortenburg," answered Egino, laughing. 
 
 "That is a remark more unprejudiced, I must confess, than I 
 should have expected from an offshoot of German nobility. For- 
 merly, they considered the Gothic blood purer and nobler than any 
 other in the world." 
 
 "I am not such a fool. I know," continued Egino, "that the 
 Colonna, the Orsini, the Savelli are the greatest names in your his- 
 tory, and that even two Popes, both of the name of Honorius, be- 
 longed to this house of Savelli. I know the monument of Luca 
 Savelli in Ara Celi, a highly artistic work of the time of Cosmo." 
 
 " The senator was from Rome as early as the year 1266," broke in 
 Callisto ; " but their stock goes even higher yet. That very Aventi- 
 nus who defended one of the Tiber hills against ./Eneas, was, accord- 
 ing to tradition, one of the Savelli, and the hill, they say, bears its- 
 name from him. They are lords of the Castle Savelli bei Albano, 
 lords of the manor of Albano and Aricia, many times united with 
 the Colonna and Ghibellines as they are ; they are hereditary mar- 
 shals of the Holy Chair and warders of the Conclave ; they also 
 have such courts of justice of their own as the Corte Savella so, 
 in fact, we have to do with a people of a moderately respectable ex- 
 traction. And now, since we are beginning to be beyond the con- 
 fusion of streets and the stream of human beings, let us put our 
 horses into a trot ; we have still a good bit of road before us."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 43 
 
 It was indeed a long road ; it led over the old Forum, on to the 
 Palatine, and to the valley once encircled by the Circus Maximus, 
 and finally upon the steep declivity of the Aventine, which the horses 
 had to climb slowly, breathing hard. On the right, the two horse- 
 men had soon the mighty substructions of the Castle of the Savelli, 
 with their battlemented walls, their towers and bastions high above 
 them. Higher up, the road turned to the right, southward ; they 
 reached an open place, on which some old cypresses stood ; farther 
 yet arose to view the Cloister of Santa Sabina, with its church. On 
 this side of the latter, lay, dark, massive, and gloomy, the house of 
 the Savelli. 
 
 The open space, covered with short, thin grass, surrounded it as a 
 kind of glacis. 
 
 The' building was in the style of those castles of which there 
 remain to us as examples the Venetian Palace in Rome, and that of 
 the Signoria, or of the Podesta, in Florence. They have a lower 
 .story with almost no openings for the admission of light ; a lofty first 
 story ; over this a story less lofty with small windows, over which is 
 a row of firm battlements ; here and there is a small balcony ; over 
 the whole, rising aloft from the middle, is a quadrangular tower, 
 which, above, gives exit from itself to a platform behind the smaller 
 indented battlements. All is ponderous and gloomy in construction, 
 " alia saracenesca" out of great blocks of freestone and smaller 
 brickwork in alternate layers. How many of these blocks of stone 
 which now give their support to the stronghold of a Roman baron, 
 may have been torn from demolished monuments of antiquity ; may 
 have once served as steps to the Flavian Amphitheatre ; as socles 
 for the columns of Jupiter's temple; as sills in the golden house of 
 Nero, or in imperial castles of the Palatine ! Truly, the thoughts of 
 our horsemen were not occupied with such reflections ; they rode 
 through the open gate into the castle, and dismounted in the court. 
 In this, all around beneath was a row of heavy pillars, which bore an 
 arcade formed of beautiful marble columns running along on the 
 upper story. 
 
 In the covered walk beneath and in the yard, all kinds of people 
 were moving about, some of them in festal attire, some and most 
 of them at that in a torn and wild condition, with long, uncombed 
 hair and beards, with daggers in their belts, with tied shoes, with 
 skins of goats which served as gaiters, with lean, sun-browned faces
 
 44 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 and cunning physiognomies, nothing of which marked it as a com- 
 pany invited to a peaceable marriage celebration. 
 
 "You are right, Signor Callisto," said Egino, when they had given 
 over their horses to one of the fellows, and now turned toward the 
 interior of the building, "you are right in considering this wedding 
 a little out of the usual way, supposing that these are the wedding- 
 guests." 
 
 " We will find the proper guests above," answered the advocate. 
 "That rabble there are the bandits of the Duke and the poorer 
 dependents of the house from the city : these last, you will have 
 observed, have clothed themselves in holiday dress, in honor of 
 the day." 
 
 Upon the broad stairway, leading above, servants were found to 
 conduct the new-comers to the great room with the throne-canopy, 
 which adorns the ante-chamber of every Roman prince. In this 
 room were discovered even as few of the guests Callisto had expected 
 to see as on the outside. 
 
 Only two men in the black garb of house-officials walked up and 
 down in the room, speaking together in low tones. 
 
 " Here I am with my witness, Signor Antonio," said Callisto to 
 one of them, while he bowed to the other. " Have we come at the 
 right time, Signor Giovanni Battista ? " 
 
 The men bowed, and Sor Antonio, the elder, said : 
 
 " Everything is in readiness for the ceremony, Signor Mmucci ; 
 we will lead you at once to His Excellency." 
 
 The other had already turned to the next door, and opened it, in 
 order to admit Callisto with his companion into a smaller room. 
 
 In this room, in a reclining chair at the window, sat the Duke of 
 Aricia, a small, meager man, clothed in dark-green velvet, with the 
 golden chain of some order on his breast ; he had his hands upon 
 the hilt of his dagger, which he held between his knees. Lying upon 
 his hands, and supported by them, was his sharp, projecting chin. 
 The face was that of a bird ; but by this crooked nose, these small 
 eyes, lying deep beneath thick, shaggy brows, there was suggested 
 to Egino, not the eagle but the kite. 
 
 A younger man in richer attire, with his arms folded over his 
 breast, with his back resting upon the window-casing, stood before 
 the Duke. 
 
 " You come at last, Signor Callisto ! " said the Duke of Aricia, 
 raising his head. "We are waiting only upon you."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 45 
 
 " I come punctually, Your Honor." 
 
 " Whom bring you there with you ? " 
 
 "A young German, who has, in Bologna, studied jurisprudence,, 
 and is now learning with me how that law, of which they have told 
 him so much, is really applied in our practice." 
 
 " How long have you lawyers been taking pupils as the painters ? " 
 
 " Wherefore should they not," broke in the younger man, laughing ; 
 " even though they paint in only two colors, making the white black 
 and the black white ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes," said the Duke, nodding his head ; "give us, then, what 
 you have painted from white to black." 
 
 Callisto drew from his breast-pocket a great, many-folded parch- 
 ment, and reached it to the Duke. 
 
 The latter began to read it attentively, with wrinkled brow. The 
 son had stepped behind him, and looked at it over his shoulder. 
 The twilight began to be observable, appearing after awhile to 
 make it difficult for the old man to read. 
 
 "It is growing late," remarked Callisto. "Do you wish, Your 
 Honor, that I call for light ? " 
 
 " No, no ; let it alone I can see," replied the Duke ; and then, 
 after reaching the end, he said, looking at his son : 
 
 "I think it is all as we wish it, Livio ?" 
 
 Livio Savelli nodded his head. 
 
 4 
 
 "Everything is in it as we specified to Signer Callisto, it seems 
 to me," said he ; "only a little turned from the speech of the sound 
 human intellect into that of the law ; but without that it would never 
 do for Signer Callisto." 
 
 " So we can proceed and let the signatures be attached, and then 
 go on with the marriage ceremony," said the Duke, rising. " Signer 
 Callisto, you know that my son Luca is very ill ? " 
 
 "I knew that he is ailing, Your Honor." 
 
 "Ailing well, yes, so ailing that it is difficult for him to move a 
 member. He had the perniciosa> you know. The fever is now 
 overcome, the hot pulse has become stiller, the wild dreams are at 
 an end ; but you know such a fever when it subsides leaves behind 
 it in the person a great faintness and debility, and therefore it need 
 not surprise you, Signor Callisto, if during the ceremony the bride- 
 groom seems a little apathetic." 
 
 . "I only wonder, Your Honor, that you do not await his restora- 
 tion, in order to have him married then."
 
 46 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Truly, Signer Callisto, that is very sensible advice which you 
 give, but, alas ! Corradina will not listen to it. The maiden, as you 
 know, has been allotted to him for years ; for years she has longed 
 for this union with the emotions of a bride. Now the poor thing is 
 uneasy and afraid on account of his illness ; she is beside herself 
 with the thought that he may die before he has become her hus- 
 band, and so we must yield to her desire to marry him. She will at 
 least have the consolation of bearing his name, of being his widow. 
 What is to be done when a woman resolves upon a certain thing ? " 
 said the Duke, concluding his speech. 
 
 " You will, therefore, also find it natural that we perform the cere- 
 mony in the narrowest circle possible," added Livio Savelli. "The 
 marriage ceremony can take place later, when Luca has recovered ; 
 to-day, many guests and a noisy feast would not have been suitable. 
 So come, now ! " 
 
 After these words the two Savelli, father and son, turned to the 
 door of exit from the chamber : on this account the significant 
 glances directed by Callisto to his pupil escaped them. Egino, 
 however, did not understand these glances. 
 
 They passed into a great room which, in former times, might well 
 have served as a banquet hall ; but now, despoiled of furniture and 
 darkened by the twilight, with its faded frescoes, it appeared very 
 sad and desolate. At the end ofvthe room a door was opened by a 
 .servant, who must have heard the steps of those approaching, and 
 the four men stood immediately in a large, occupied chamber more 
 suitably fitted up. 
 
 On the left the room had two lofty windows, which opened out 
 on the vacant space and the back of the Aventine. The wall on the 
 right, opposite the windows, ran to only about the middle of the 
 room. Then it sprang back at a right angle, so that one looked 
 there into a second and deeper room adjoining, in the back part of 
 which stood a lofty canopied bed, and in which several strips of car- 
 pet covered the floor. 
 
 Cushioned reclining-chairs, and curtains before the windows, and 
 bottles with medicine upon the tables, led one to suppose that this 
 room was prepared for the nursing of a sufferer. 
 
 Opposite the door through which the Savelli and our friends en- 
 tered, a broad stairway of eight or nine steps led into a farther room, 
 which lay about a half story higher up ; in the background of the 
 same appeared an altar, upon which burned two candles, and upon
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 47 
 
 
 
 whose steps knelt two monks, who wore white surplices over their 
 gowns. The elevated room must be the private chapel of the house; 
 the monks must belong to the neighboring cloister of Santa Sabina, 
 they wore the Dominican habit. 
 
 Egino's eyes swept over all this with hasty glance, in order, then, 
 to remain fixed upon two groups of persons occupying the chamber 
 in which he found himself. 
 
 The first consisted of two women in stately robes of hardly folding 
 material ; the one already aged, the other with a beautifully cut face, 
 about thirty years of age, in the transition to that compactness of 
 form and dignified fullness which so often robs Roman women quite 
 early of the gracefulness of their youthful bloom. 
 
 They sat talking together in low tones, opposite each other, on the 
 stone seats in the window-niche, and arose now at the entrance of 
 the men. 
 
 In the back part of the room, near the entrance to the sick- 
 chamber, stood a table ; behind this, in an arm-chair, rested idly, his 
 head sunk upon his breast, his right arm lying upon the table, a man 
 in a waistcoat of dark-red velvet, a hat of the same material encircled 
 with a band of pearls, so placed upon his head that his features were 
 entirely shaded. Also, as the men entered, he lifted not his drooping 
 head ; he remained motionless, and as if without interest. 
 
 On his left, her right arm supported on the back of his chair, 
 stood a great, tall female form. She was clothed in long, flowing 
 robes of white silk ; a wreath of orange blossoms rested upon her 
 head over the rich, dark-blonde hair which fell over her shoulders all 
 unbound. An open-eyed, candid look under the quietly lifted lids 
 met those entering ; rested upon none except upon Egino a short 
 while, and then turned again to the motionless bridegroom. 
 
 At the sight of this form Egino opened his lips as if he repressed 
 an outcry of surprise, of astonishment. 
 
 In all his life he had never seen such a maiden, such a woman, 
 such an enchanting woman. It was a woman with the appearance 
 of a goddess. It seemed to him she could not wear this wreath for 
 a man for a dying man ; it was impossible that this apparition could 
 have anything in common with the corrupt, half-dead mortal near 
 her, around whose broken limbs the folds of his clothing hung loose. 
 No, no ; the wreath upon her golden hair, upon the proud head, was 
 as a wreath of espousal to- something infinitely lofty, beautiful, super- 
 natural !
 
 48 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 What made the beauty of her features still more captivating for 
 Egino was the great softness, the indistinctness, the halo which the 
 twilight produced. A beautiful face that rises before us in the twi- 
 light, receives from it the most dangerous charm. This Egino ex- 
 perienced in this moment ; the charm seized him with a force as if 
 from this hour it would never again let him loose. He stood as if 
 rooted to the earth ; his arms had gently, involuntarily raised them- 
 selves, as they do when something suddenly lays hold upon us, 
 when out of the dark heaven a meteor suddenly flames forth. 
 
 The Duke of Aricia had stepped up to the table ; he stood before 
 it, so that he came between the lawyer and the sick bridegroom. 
 Livio drew near at the other side of his brother. 
 
 " Here is the contract for which we were waiting," said the Duke, 
 spreading the parchment on the table ; " put your names to it, my 
 children, you first, Luca, and then Corradina, and we others; and 
 then to the chapel. Let us all hasten, that we may shorten the 
 exertion and excitement for Luca as much as possible. Livio, help 
 your brother with the signature ; his hand is weak." 
 
 Livio had already gently slipped the parchment under his brother's 
 arm, and he now took a reed-pen, which he filled with ink, and forced 
 between the fingers of the sick man, and then took his hand and 
 helped him write the words, " Luca Savelli." 
 
 He gave the pen to the bride. Slowly, measuredly, quietly, she 
 received it, and wrote. The Duke followed, then Livio, then the two 
 men clothed in the black garb of higher house servants, whom 
 Callisto had greeted in the ante-chamber as Sor Antonio and 
 Giovanni Battista, and who during the foregoing had softly come 
 out of the sick-chamber. They also wrote their signatures ; then 
 both stooped over the chair 'of the sick man, took him up and bore 
 him to the stairway, up the steps and into the chapel. With pecul- 
 iar looks Callisto had regarded everything ; now, turning to Egino, 
 he said, in a whisper : 
 
 " It appears almost as if our signature will not be desired ; we will 
 not urge it upon them. I never did write very willingly in the dark." 
 
 It had become ( one knows how speedily, in the South, night fol- 
 lows the twilight) so dark that writing was indeed becoming almost 
 difficult ; but Egino saw, by a look upon the parchment, in what 
 powerfully firm characters stood the name "Corradina, Countess 
 d'Anticoli," near the almost illegible " Luca Savelli," and over the 
 excitedly, unquietly scribbled "Geronimo Savelli d'Aricia."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 49 
 
 Those present had betaken themselves together up the stairs into 
 the chapel ; they stood as a guard around the chair of the sick man ; 
 near it, upon a cushion on the first step of the altar, knelt the bride. 
 
 One of the two monks stood before them, his back turned to the 
 altar, an open book in his hand. The other, as his assistant, stood 
 at one side behind him. 
 
 The first began to repeat some form of prayer out of the book. 
 He must have known it by heart, for the light of the two burning 
 wax candles which fell from high above on the little altar, could not 
 "be in a position to light up the leaves of his book. The whole chapel 
 room was very low, and must by daylight be already rather dark ; 
 now only a few sparing rays penetrated the two lower windows on 
 the left, and fell on the remarkable group, the sick man in his chair ; 
 the woman kneeling near him in dazzling white, and with free-flow- 
 ing hair ; the monks elevated one step higher ; and the richly clad 
 men and women around. 
 
 Callisto had quickly stepped up into the chapel ; Egino, as if drawn 
 *by a charm, as if caught in a dream, followed slowly. 
 
 Like a dream to him was the whole picture, upon which his eyes 
 fell staring, while he stood immovable on the topmost step of the 
 stair, which was also the threshold of the chapel. One instant he 
 drew himself together shrinkingly. It was when he heard a "Yes " 
 pronounced, the "Yes" of a man, not loud nor strong, but uttered 
 distinctly and quickly ; another " Yes " pure and firm, spoken by a 
 .clear feminine voice, followed. 
 
 The monk then turned about, by which movement the rays of the 
 tapers lighted up his thin, well-marked face. He turned to the altar, 
 in order to take the ring, then turned back again ; and thereupon 
 followed again the mumbling of the monk and the movements of his 
 hands, as if he blessed, then put together hands and blessed again, 
 and then 
 
 Egino felt a hand upon his arm. It was Callisto's. 
 
 "I pray you look closely at the bridegroom when he is carried 
 past you," whispered the advocate. 
 
 Egino turned his head slowly to him, as if he did not understand. 
 
 Only a few moments longer, and all was over ; the group before 
 the altar dissolved ; the two men in black lifted up the chair with 
 the sick man and bore him past Egino, down out of the chapel. The 
 bride followed close beside him. Egino did not heed Callisto's 
 admonition ; he saw only her. She stepped by him with a carriage
 
 50 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 proudly erect, with immovable features, like a walking statue ; so 
 she descended the stair. As she descended, .Egino gazed, from his 
 higher place, upon the wreath of orange blossoms and the golden 
 hair. It was to him as if the vision were sinking before him, as if 
 she went down, were drawn downward into night and darkness, into 
 the night of her destiny. 
 
 And then all disappeared. The little procession, having come to 
 the foot of the stair into the chamber below, turned to the left to 
 the sick chamber. The folds of the trailing garments of the two- 
 women in the rear, as they disappeared around the corner of the 
 wall at the stairway below, was the last that Egino saw. 
 
 Only the Duke of Aricia remained at the altar. There he spoke 
 in whispers to one of the monks. Now he came with hasty step 
 after the lawyer, who, laying his hand upon Egino's arm, was at this 
 instant descending with him the stairway. ' 
 
 "Signer Legista," he said, "now, since all that is necessary is ac- 
 complished, follow me to my chambers above. I think you will take 
 a little recompense for the failure of a marriage banquet, and empty 
 with me a goblet of Montefiascone, to the welfare of the young 
 people, you, and your pupil there." 
 
 " No, sir ; I cannot do that, if you will not take it as ungracious in 
 me." 
 
 " And why not, Signor Minucci ? " asked the Duke, throwing back 
 his head. 
 
 "As a shrewd jurist not," replied Callisto, with light tone. "If I 
 to-day take the substitute, would I be found absent on the day of 
 the wedding banquet ; and to that I will not fool away my right, and 
 will reserve to myself all claims, if you only knew it." 
 
 The Duke forced himself to a short laugh. 
 
 "Indeed, you are a man of foresight. But now, if I quiet you, 
 and vow see, there comes Livio back ; he will pledge us, as also 
 the monks, as soon as they have laid aside their priestly garments 
 so follow me." 
 
 Callisto felt a heavy pressure from the arm Egino had upon his. 
 
 " Excuse us, really," answered, therefore, the lawyer. "You know 
 I live far from the Porta del Popolo ; it is growing night, and the 
 night is no one's friend, or, better, it has in Rome too many friends ; 
 therefore do not be angry if we " 
 
 " Let them go, our legal advisers," here put in Livio. "You see, 
 father, they fear that, while my poor brother is so weak and frail,.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 51 
 
 they would have poor companionship for an evening revel. There 
 may be more cheerful company awaiting them so bona sera, you 
 gentlemen ! " 
 
 The Duke also now insisted no longer. He reached Callisto his 
 hand, bowed coldly adieu to Egino, and with the words, "Well, 
 then, Livio may be right ; farewell, Signer Callisto, and accept first 
 my thanks," he turned away to the room of the invalid. 
 
 Livio accompanied Callisto and Egino to the door of the chamber. 
 
 When they saw themselves outside, alone, both stepped through 
 the ante-chamber with the haste of a pair pursued, fleeing.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WEDDED TO THE DEAD. 
 
 'AVING reached the court below, the two men threw 
 themselves with the same haste upon their horses. In 
 silence they left the Castle of the Savelli. 
 
 Outside, Signer Callisto urged his horse close to that 
 of Egino, and whispered : 
 
 " Did you perceive it ? '' 
 
 "Perceive? Perceive what?" exclaimed the German, with a 
 harsh, tempestuous tone. " By God ! I have perceived what suffices 
 to make me beside myself. I am deprived of my senses by it ; I have 
 no more control of myself ; it is to me as if an evil power, a wild 
 demon, had turned my soul round and round. I wish to cry ; I wish 
 to weep ; I wish to kill somebody, especially all of the name of 
 Savelli. I am no more myself ; I am as if lost on this maiden, this 
 marvelous woman ; as if enchanted, not merely in my thoughts 
 no, in my whole inner being, my every muscle, every fiber, every 
 heart-throb, every drop of blood. Callisto, Callisto, what have you 
 done to me, what have you brought upon me in letting me behold 
 this image of a woman, this image which now possesses me, tears 
 itself away, withdraws into its night and into its horrible misery ! " 
 
 Shocked, Callisto looked upon the young man uttering these 
 words as if in perfect desperation. 
 
 "God help us! " said he; "you hurl disturbing accusation against 
 me, and my soul is, Heaven knows, disturbed enough. You are en- 
 chanted, carried away with the beauty of this bride ? Your passions 
 are aroused ? To the devil ! You will not be a fool. You will 
 know how to overcome it." 
 
 " I must first have a will to overcome it, and I have. I swear by 
 the blood of Christ only the one will, that is, to get possession of 
 this woman, to tear her from the poor, miserable, sickly dog of a
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 53 
 
 bridegroom who could not move a limb ! I could murder this Luca 
 Savelli ; I could murder his whole kinship, if I, through blood " 
 
 "Hold, hold, Count Egino ! " cried Callisto ; "do not utter your 
 madness ; and, before all, do not pledge your soul to the Devil, 
 though the Devil has an interest in it. You cannot make this 
 woman free through a murder." 
 
 "And why not ? " 
 
 " Because she is not wedded to a living man, whom you might 
 have put out of the way." 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " 
 
 * Where did you have your eyes ? " 
 
 "My eyes? My eyes rested upon her; if I had had a hundred 
 eyes I should have seen only her." 
 
 "And did they not rest for a moment upon the bridegroom ?" 
 
 "Only long enough to see she was married to a pitiful manikin." 
 
 "A manikin ? No; a corpse, Count Egino ! Corradina was given 
 in marriage to the dead, you could say." 
 
 " To the dead ? " 
 
 "Yes; Count Luca Savelli was dead." 
 
 " Dead ? " cried Egino, loudly. 
 
 "You were blind if you did not see it." 
 
 " Righteous Jesus ! " 
 
 " I knew it very soon," continued Callisto, "in spite of what they 
 did to conceal it from us. Luca Savelli was dead." 
 
 "But, for Heaven's sake! for what purpose " 
 
 " Has it not occurred to you already, then," said Callisto, speaking 
 on without hearing this exclamation, " that the Duke carefully kept 
 away the light even in the first room in which we found him, al- 
 though it became dark? The whole transaction was appointed for 
 the hour of twilight. Also, upon the altar burned only two poor 
 candles. That I brought with me a stranger might appear disturb- 
 ing enough ; but they had not the conscience sufficiently clear to 
 hazard an objection and they had no pretext. Didn't you see how 
 they stood all the time around the dead man, in order that our 
 glances should not rest upon him?" 
 
 " And the ' Yes ' that he spoke ? " 
 
 " Was Livio's. Don't doubt it ; I know the voice." 
 
 Egino became speechless with astonishment. 
 
 "But the witnesses, the signatures, the monk who performed 
 the ceremony ! " cried he, then, after a pause.
 
 54 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 "My God!" exclaimed Callisto, shrugging his shoulders. "The 
 Duke of Aricia finds tools for every purpose." 
 
 " And you, you yourself, Callisto ; for the sake of eternal 
 justice why didn't you tear to pieces your false and lying document, 
 and cast the fragments in the faces of these dreadful people ? Why 
 did you not say to me, not with one syllable, what you perceived ? I 
 should rather have allowed myself torn in pieces than to have 
 looked in silence upon this sacrilege." 
 
 " Thank God I was silent ! Of what use would it have been to 
 speak ? There would have been enough people there below, under 
 the arcades and in the court, to make us harmless ; I saw down 
 there Lanfranco with his sons, one of the worst cutthroats out of 
 the mountains. Rejoice yourself that we are safe on our way home, 
 and again in the saddle of our horses. By the way, you might 
 shorten the reins of yours a little more upon this steeply descending 
 road. If we had been less quiet spectators, these same horses 
 would now be stepping under a pair of men fast bound, going east- 
 ward to the mountains, to some quiet, solitary castle of the Savelli." 
 
 " And if also this heavenly woman could have been saved, this ter- 
 rible thing would not have happened that she should be married to a 
 dead person." 
 
 " Do you know that so positively ? Was it not her place to speak 
 first ? Could she not speak the. decisive ' No ' ? Do you know 
 whether all this did not happen with her consent ? Whether she 
 is not proud to be able to wear now the name of this dead Luca ? 
 Truly, she appeared as if she gave herself willingly to this atrocious 
 play ; her brows were firmly drawn together, and her lips did not 
 tremble." 
 
 " Oh, that is impossible, impossible ! How could such youth, such 
 beauty, such fullness of life, allow itself to be wedded to the 
 dead, freely fetter itself to the dead ? No, no ; horror and despair 
 had turned her to stone." 
 
 "It is possible," responded Signer Minucci, reflectively; "it is 
 possible. Who knows ? In the first place it is, at least, certain 
 that after some days we shall receive the announcement that Luca 
 Savelli is dead from his illness, and that Rome will have the specta- 
 cle of the burial of a Savelli in the old family vault, in Ara Celi. 
 They will be kind enough to invite me to it ; if you will accompany 
 me, Count Egino, I will bring you away, as I have clone to-day." 
 
 " I could hate you, Callisto, for the calmness with which you say
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 55 
 
 all this," rejoined Egino, angrily. " Has it not also changed your 
 heart in your body ? Has it " 
 
 The lawyer again shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Look around you, Count Egino ; it has become very dark ; but 
 you can still recognize there to the right the Palatine Hill and the 
 towers to the palaces of the Caesars ; the height there before us is 
 the Capitol. You are in Rome, and do you wonder at anything ? 
 You have not forgotten how to be astonished at men and their 
 deeds ? " 
 
 " You must," he continued, as Egino did not reply, " you must be- 
 come wiser, and learn that in this world, whose spiritual structure 
 has the miraculous to the lowest foundation, anything becomes 
 possible. In yonder elevated chamber, wherein we assisted at the 
 marriage, the holy Dominicus once slept as the guest of Pope Hono- 
 rius ; for that reason they made of it their private chapel. Why be 
 so horrified if on the altar of such a man the living is sacrificed to 
 the dead! What begins with miracle must end with madness."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COAT OF ARMS OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN. 
 
 JHE passionate outburst with which Egino confessed the 
 ineffaceable impression which the bride of the dead Sa- 
 velli had made upon him, had about it nothing too vio- 
 lent, too fiery, nothing untrue. What he had said to his 
 companion, what he had described, that he felt ; he felt it in uncon- 
 querable strength during the night, which he passed without sleep ; 
 he felt it on the following day, on all the following days, during 
 which he spent the hours alone in his chamber, inactive, dreaming, 
 insensible to everything else, or in slipping around, seeking out 
 solitary roads, avoiding the sight of men, shunning even the voice of 
 men, and wandering around as if lost. 
 
 With his clear intellect he had thoroughly turned over and medi- 
 tated upon all sides of this event ; he had penetrated with his sagac- 
 ity into each of the questions rankling so stormily in his bosom ; 
 he had weighed every possibility ; he had sifted for himself every 
 interpretation, so far as that was possible without having recourse to 
 some one else, in order thereby to obtain explanations ; he feared 
 from Callisto a cold, mocking reception, if he spoke with him in re- 
 gard to that which lay so heavily upon his soul ; he shunned so 
 much as to speak the name of Corradina before any one in the: 
 world. 
 
 The more he still racked his brain and thought, the more he sank 
 into the helpless despair which had taken possession of him the 
 despair of the will in the fetters of passion, which runs its brow 
 against the brazen wall of the impossible. Impossible, impossible 
 it was indeed impossible for him, a foreigner, helpless, to make a way 
 into the castle of the powerful race, and set free the victim who, 
 according to his conception, had no other rescuer, avenger, protector 
 but him. It was a thousand times impossible ! 
 
 56
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 57 
 
 Impossible even to himself, perhaps especially to himself. 
 Would not another, in his place, have discovered means and ways to 
 make himself known to the Savelli ? to win their friendship, their 
 confidence ? to have himself invited into their houses, to their villas ?' 
 to approach, in this way, Corradina, to search into her thoughts, in 
 order to sue for her favor ? All this another could have done ; but 
 Egino did not think of such a course. To dissemble, to put on a 
 mask, to feign friendship and devotion where he hated hated even 
 to the death his honest German nature was not in a condition for 
 that. He had as weapons against a lie, only the truth ; against 
 trickery, only anger ; against force, only force. 
 
 And these weapons of what avail were they ! 
 
 Egino felt himself sunken, overcome, lost in this dreadful situa- 
 tion. He could not extricate himself from the narrow circle of 
 thought in which he was entangled, held a prisoner, surrounded as 
 by an iron ring, which robbed him of breath, of the power to live. 
 He could not tear himself loose from the thought of the unhappily 
 wonderful woman and her lot, and the fact that he wished to rescue 
 her, must rescue her, and that he was so powerless against those 
 who were destroying her young life, as a poor bird is powerless to 
 overcome the walls against which he flutters. 
 
 The highest blossom into which the life of man may develop has 
 three petals, no more, which stand close together, unfolded from the 
 same bud. They often blend into one how often ! They are love, 
 poesy, and madness. How much of madness is in poesy ? how much 
 of poesy in love ? how much of poesy and love- in madness ? Who 
 can say? That, however, could no one say to Egino, that in his 
 love there was much of madness, that he was sinking into it deeper 
 and deeper. Intellect and passion were in him as if whirling one 
 within the other, and going astray in the immensity of longing, of 
 desire, of burning passion for this unfortunate woman wedded to the 
 dead. 
 
 One evening Egino came home tired to death from a long walk. 
 He had been wandering about in the Campagna, among the ruins of 
 old monuments on the "queen of streets." When he entered his 
 dwelling, his servant Gotz informed him that Signer Callisto Minucci 
 had been there to take him for a walk to the Capitol. 
 
 "And what should I do with him at the Capitol? " asked Egino. 
 
 " There is to be some great person buried in the church up there,"
 
 58 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 responded Gotz. " Signer Callisto would have procured for you a 
 good place to witness the solemnities." 
 
 "One of the great of Rome is to be buried on the Capitol?" ex- 
 claimed Egino. "He is named Luca Savelli, this dead man? " 
 
 "I believe it was a name that sounded like that," responded the 
 servant. "Will you follow him, Master ? " 
 
 Egino threw himself exhausted into his arm-chair. 
 
 " No," he said. " I need not see him buried in order to know 
 that he is dead. You go, if it seems enticing to you. Go ! Yet 
 hold ; give me back my sword and my mantle. I will go, and you 
 follow me." 
 
 Egino left the house again in haste. The thought had come to 
 him that at this funeral the women of the house of Savelli might be 
 present, and that it was possible he might see Corradina among the 
 number. He didn't know whether or not the Roman women were 
 wont to appear on such occasions, but it might be. 
 
 So, followed by his servant, he walked hastily down the Corso to 
 the Capitol ; then up the endless succession of marble steps forming 
 the lofty flight which leads upward to the church of Ara Cell. 
 
 The portal was draped with black. 
 
 As he stepped into the interior, that was hung with black cloth 
 and lighted with innumerable flaming wax candles and torches, he 
 heard, coming forth from one of the side chapels at the upper end of 
 the church, the sound of a mournful funeral dirge. In the middle of 
 the nave he saw a catafalque surrounded by burning torches. It 
 was empty, the coffin having been removed. They had already de- 
 posited the coffin in the vault of the chapel above. When Egino 
 reached the chapel, he saw that the workmen were busy closing up 
 the coping of the vault, while a host of the Franciscan monks of 
 Ara Celi, standing around in a circle, howled in a doleful manner, 
 rather than sang, a funeral song. 
 
 A great crowd of spectators were scattered about in all directions ; 
 the pall-bearers, a dense crowd of men in mourning garb with pre- 
 lates clothed in violet or purple between them, were just leaving 
 through the upper side door : the whole thing was at an end. It 
 seemed that no women had taken part except those of the depend- 
 ents of the house and those of the common people, who now streamed 
 past Egino right and left leaving the church. 
 
 Egino also turned to depart. As he again passed through the 
 nave of the church to the catafalque, his eye fell upon the scaffold,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 59 
 
 adorned with a covering of black velvet and cloth of gold. The 
 ancestral arms of the house of Savelli were displayed upon it, sur- 
 rounding its base as a wreath ; at the head and foot ends was the 
 coat-of-arms of the just-buried dead. The last showed the escutch- 
 eons of Luca Savelli and of his wife placed near each other. Upon 
 one were the lions of the Savelli and the swords of the hereditary 
 
 marshalship ; upon the other, the escutcheon of the wife, however 
 
 What did that mean ? Upon this coat-of-arms, on which the light of 
 the torches fell red as blood, presented itself, upon a golden ground, 
 a two-headed black eagle, which upon its breast bore a heart-shield 
 with a red lion rampant. That was the shield of the German gov- 
 ernment, of the German emperor, as borne by the race of Frederick 
 von Biiren, the race of the Hohenstaufens. Wonderful ! What had 
 the Countess Corradina von Anticoli to do with the Hohenstaufens ? 
 Egino stood overcome by the sight. Was that pictured coat-of- 
 arms a legendary writing in Runic characters, a charmed circle, which 
 held him bound fast, over which he could not pass ? He stood and 
 gazed upon it till the church was entirely deserted, upon that coat- 
 of-arms of the Hohenstaufens, which suddenly rose before his eyes 
 upon the Capitol, upon a catafalque !
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STANZA DELLA SEGNATURA. 
 
 |HE eminently beautiful and extensive square in front of 
 St. Peter's Church, which, adorned with the obelisk of 
 Pharaoh Rameses VII., overlooked by the dome 9f 
 Michael Angelo, is to-day the proudest and most impos- 
 ing expression of the world-swaying church, appeared very wild and 
 desolate in the year 1510. To the mighty church-building, there 
 was still wanting that crowning dome, still the faade of Maderno ; 
 there was still lacking those two projecting, semicircular colonnades 
 which, like two giant arms, lie far stretched out around the square. 
 There could not then arise in a sarcastic mind the thought that all 
 of this Vatican basilica lies there like a giant crab, with its two 
 colossal pincers extended for prey. The building was surrounded 
 with scaffolds, the square covered with blocks of travertine, with 
 cutting-blocks and stones of every kind, with rafters and planks, 
 with arrangements for preparing the mortar, with all that which is 
 wont to accumulate in the neighborhood of a new building for years 
 in process of erection. 
 
 And still much more than to-day did the palace of the Vatican 
 present the character of a gigantic, mediaeval royal castle, with high 
 towered walls and buttressed pillars, with battlements and defensive 
 stocks. The whole Palazzo Nuovo, now occupied by the Popes, was 
 not standing then. That part of the building, however, into which 
 the admirers of the artistic glories of the Vatican overflow, when 
 they, having come to the Court of San Damaso, turn thence to the 
 left this old building in which Alexander Borgia, Julius II., and 
 Leo X. dwelt, was even then covered with lofty scaffolds ; for, under 
 the direction of Bramante, they had even then begun to add to it 
 the loggias, which to-day surround all three sides of the Court of 
 San Damaso a structure which, under Leo X.'s pontificate, 
 Raphael pushed to completion, in order then to adorn these loggias 
 
 60
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 61 
 
 with his works, or to have them adorned with the works of his 
 pupils. 
 
 Some days after the burial of Luca Savelli, Egino, in his aimless 
 wanderings, fell upon the square in front of St. Peter's. He looked 
 with apathetic glance upon the ant-like movements around the build- 
 ing-site, in whose central space arose the four pillars now support- 
 ing the dome. Between these pillars, in the background, appeared 
 the interior of the old St. Peter's Church, the greater part of its walls 
 covered with plank. The separate parts of the old building were 
 borne away and destroyed, only in the proportion in which the neces- 
 sity to win room for the new made this unavoidable. 
 
 Egino stared upon the spectacle, and seated himself then upon a 
 block of marble lying there, without perceiving that he was observed 
 by any one. After awhile a hand was laid upon his shoulder, and, 
 lifting his eyes, he looked into the face of a young monk, who wore 
 an undergarment of white woolen stuff and a white scapulary, over 
 which was a black cape open in front, with wide hanging sleeves. 
 He had removed the leathern girdle which belonged to his costume, 
 and thrown it over his shoulder ; because, on this warm day, it 
 might have become too warm for him in his monk's garb. 
 
 The young monk appeared quite like a German, with his firm and 
 compact form, his thick blonde hair, his sturdy features, to which a 
 broad, bold chin gave the expression of courage and energy. It was 
 not possible that other than German blood flowed through this pow- 
 erful, thick-set frame ; only what lay in his eyes, looking smilingly 
 down upon Egino, this peculiarly dazzling light, this interchange be- 
 tween the bright beam and the deep glow, which soon manifested it- 
 self under the excitement produced by the conversation with Egino, 
 had nothing of the national type ; it was a peculiarity, a special 
 characteristic of this young man in the habit of an Augustine 
 monk, a peculiarity which always exercised a kind of charm over 
 him who looked into this deeply flaming eye of the soul. 
 
 "See, see, Count Egino ! " said then, in the German speech, the 
 young monk, smiling. " Here sits a young German of princely 
 blood and lets the sun burn his back, in order to observe how the 
 Roman church builds itself anew." 
 
 "Brother Martin!" cried Egino, "is it you? Well, yes, I am 
 looking upon and observing all the haste, and see how the ardent 
 Master Bramante manages to keep his host of workmen in breath." 
 
 " And what do you think of this sight, you German prince ? "
 
 62 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 asked Brother Martin, while he familiarly seated himself near Egino, 
 on the broad stone. 
 
 "What do I think of it?" continued Egino. "Now, if you wish 
 to know, I think it is an old rule if a man has found happiness and 
 prosperity in a modest and narrow house, he should not leave it to 
 remove into a more showy, larger one ; the happiness refuses, indeed, 
 to remove with him into the new one. Who knows whether the 
 future of the church in the new house will be so happy as was the 
 past in the old ! " 
 
 "You are something of a heretic, Count Egino," answered the 
 monk, shaking his head. "Happiness ? What is happiness ? Does 
 the church need it ? " 
 
 " Were I a heretic, I would, on the contrary, say it is good that the 
 church begins to build itself anew ; for, as it was, it was even a little 
 worn out and decaying." 
 
 "And let that even be heard in preference," responded Brother 
 Martin, nodding. " With everything upon the earth must that which 
 is decaying be renewed ; and, alas ! there has come into the church, 
 also, as occurs in earthly human phenomena, much, very much of 
 decay and corruption, and new work is necessary to restore the 
 splendor of the temple and the chaste beauty of holiness." 
 
 " Do you dare say that, little monk ? " asked Egino. 
 
 "Wherefore should I not say what lies open to the eyes of all the 
 world ? I see here many dirty hands guarding the treasure of the 
 church ; the treasure is not, therefore, less if I say, ' Wash your 
 hands.' I see that much moss has formed upon the columns of this 
 tabernacle ; the pillars are not, therefore, the less of porphyry and 
 gold if I say, ' Scour this filthy moss and this rust from them.' I 
 see there lies dirt and rubbish on the ground around the altar here ; 
 the altar is not, therefore, less a holy place of offering if I say, 
 'Sweep this trash out.' Am I right, Count Egino of Ortenburg, or 
 not ? " 
 
 " Such a man as you, Brother Martin, is always right," gave Egino 
 for reply. " You are even a peculiar spirit, and, as a monk, perform 
 already the incredible, if you only perceive and admit the dirt on the 
 hands, the rust on the pillars, the rubbish around the altar." 
 
 "Ah, ah! You speak as one who understands nothing about these 
 things," said Brother Martin, interrupting him here. " Should the 
 monk, because he is a monk, be like the humble dog which licks the 
 feet of the great, the high-puissant honor-bearers ? I know the
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 63 
 
 world looks upon the poor mendicant monk in this way. But you 
 are mistaken ; if he is to you children of the world, even once, an 
 object of ridicule, you would be nearer right to call the poor, begging 
 friar the court-fool of the church for the court-fool, you know, has 
 the right to speak the truth out plainly." 
 
 "The truth! Pilate asked Christ, 'What is truth?' Surely he 
 would not have asked a mendicant monk this question. Perhaps, at 
 the most, he might have asked so learned an Augustine brother as 
 yourself, Brother Martin." 
 
 "We, also, are but poor hermit brethren, nothing further, and 
 esteem ourselves no wiser than those in patched, brown capes, with 
 long or short cowls, with long or short beards. And out of the poor 
 cloister has always gone forth opposition to the increasing worldliness 
 of the church ; yes, bold, protesting sects, as the Fraticelli and the 
 Umiliati, or whole congregations, as the Minoriten, Celestines, against 
 whom the Inquisition has taken measures sufficiently sharp." 
 
 "All that, truly, you know better than I," interposed Egino. "I 
 remain only by my statement in regard to what you asked me, 
 Brother Martin, that to me the building of new churches is not 
 pleasing. Why be always building greater churches, while the spirit 
 that rules therein always proves itself to be such that it frightens 
 pious men to go in?" 
 
 Brother Martin had removed his leathern girdle from his 
 shoulder, and was busying himself with it, clasping and unclasping 
 the buckle. So doing, he said: 
 
 "You talk about this as a German nobleman. The spirit which 
 reigns therein is the same that it was from the beginning, although 
 its form has changed from time to time. Every spirit is a current : 
 upon it the drift of everything that has life goes to a continual pro- 
 duction of an ever-improved form." 
 
 " Only do not shape and unfold too much, and things which deter 
 men from following you," interposed Egino. " I have learned so 
 much in Bologna, in the college of the learned Greek, Tryphon. 
 The great heresies have always arisen through a protest against 
 your new forms. On account of the new form of the doctrine of the 
 divinity of the Son, the Arians arose and have continued to this day; 
 on account of the unfolding of Papal Infallibility, arose the Walden- 
 sians ; on account of the dogma which set aside the cup, the 
 Hussites. All these heretics have always declared themselves only 
 against the innovations, and remain by the original Word of God, or
 
 64 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 wish to return to it ; and I fear there will still be many of them, 
 many, remain behind, if this unfolding of new forms, of new exten- 
 sion of power, of new heavenly pardon to be had for money, is 
 continued." 
 
 " What do you understand about this, you or your cunning Greek 
 of Bologna, who there leads the German youth astray," answered 
 Brother Martin. " Shall I do you the honor to hold a theological 
 disputation with your young wisdom ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, " responded Egino, smiling ; " I grant you my young 
 wisdom is not in condition for that, never less so than now." 
 
 " So come, rather, and follow me ; I can help you to a sight which 
 it is, as yet, not allowed to every one to behold." 
 
 " And that is ? " 
 
 " I am going to a brother of my order, the sacristan of the Holy 
 Father. He has bidden me come to the chambers up there " the 
 monk pointed to the right, where the buildings of the papal residence 
 towered high above them "which a young, but very celebrated 
 master has adorned with paintings, such that no man has ever in 
 any land beheld finer." 
 
 " Oh ! I have heard so much of this master, and of his pictures 
 in the Vatican Palace! " here exclaimed Egino. "You confer upon 
 me a great favor, Brother Martin." 
 
 "Then come on." 
 
 Egino arose, and the two fellow-countrymen turned thence to the 
 right, where they soon found themselves upon a steeply ascending 
 street which led between the substructions of the palace and the 
 lofty, inclosing walls, and up which they slowly walked, with people 
 passing one another in the most various garbs; with men in spiritual 
 and secular costumes, court servants, prelates, Swiss soldiers in the 
 picturesque uniform of their land, Roman grandees, in stately pomp, 
 with armed retinue. It appeared as if there were here a continual 
 ebb and flow in the royal castle of the earthly vicegerent of heavenly 
 power. 
 
 Brother Martin seemed to have passed over the road more than 
 once before. When he, with Egino, had reached the Court of San 
 Damaso, he turned to one of the doors, immediately behind which a 
 broad stairway led upward. Upon the first landing stood, leaning 
 motionless upon his halberd, a soldier, who, in an indifferent tone, 
 asked the two men whither they wished to go ; and when Brother 
 Martin gave the name of Fra Anselmo, the brother of his order, in
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 65 
 
 the same apathetic manner, with a mere movement of the head, he 
 bade them go farther. 
 
 Above, Egino and Martin came to a curtain of green cloth, at 
 which a guardian porter again detained them. Upon Martin's 
 informing him whither he wished to go, he lifted the curtain, and the 
 two Germans entered a room, half hall, half corridor, with vaulted 
 ceilings and walls frescoed with scenes from the Old Testament, 
 with a few high windows, admitting only insufficient light. Seats 
 ran around the walls, with cushions of embroidered stuff placed upon 
 them, and mats of fine hurdle-work covered the stone slabs of the 
 floor. Upon these mats, moving leisurely up and down, stepped 
 several groups of men, two of them in the red robes of a cardinal ; 
 others sat talking together upon the seats at the side : men of 
 the most diverse ages, of the most diverse nationalities of 
 the world ; the legate of some German order out of the far North, 
 near the long-bearded prior of a Spanish monastery ; a Hungarian 
 bishop near a Scotch duke in the costume of his land men of 
 proud, commanding, and expressive heads and crafty, meagre faces 
 with mobile countenances all led hither by a common aim. They 
 were led here to this middle point of the spiritual authority of the 
 world, to see fulfilled some desire involving a vital question for them- 
 selves ; this might be, now, the territory of a sovereign or a bishop- 
 ric, a verdict or a privilege, a release from some law or absolution 
 from some sin. This Vatican was then, indeed, the heart of a great 
 .system, of arteries and veins, in which pulsed the religious life of the 
 world ; through the arteries flowed out spiritual favors to the world, 
 through the veins flowed back money. 
 
 The two Germans who entered this room let their glance glide 
 inquiringly over the assembly, when, from the other end of the room, 
 where he had been chatting with a man in clerical dress, there came 
 to meet them an elderly monk, bowing familiarly to Brother Martin 
 while yet at a distance. He wore a white habit, like that of Brother 
 Martin, under his black cape. 
 
 " That is Brother Anselmo, the sacristan and father confessor of 
 His Holiness," said Martin to his companion. 
 
 Then, turning to the one approaching, he continued in the Latin 
 tongue : 
 
 " You see two curious Germans instead of one, worthy father. 
 This is a young count from beyond the Alps, who has come hither 
 in order to carry on a process against me and our cloister. We are
 
 66 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 still none the less good friends on that account, and we shall soon 
 settle our affairs ourselves, if the Rota doesn't do it." 
 
 "Right, just right," answered Fra Anselmo, regarding Egino with 
 a friendly smile ; "better that two friends divide a disputed fruit, 
 than that the contention about the fruit divide the friends. You 
 wish to see what our young Urbino is painting in the Sala della 
 Segnatura ? " 
 
 " Since you promised me to let me see it, worthy father," re- 
 sponded Martin. 
 
 " I know, I know ; and I was expecting you. Follow me. Only 
 do not let the master know of our presence by talking too loudly ; 
 he would then, indeed, be in a condition to send us all three away 
 with a scolding." 
 
 Fra Anselmo passed to the other end of the room, and the Ger- 
 mans followed him ; through a second curtain they came into a nar- 
 row corridor, and then into a vaulted room of more moderate 
 extension. 
 
 "Here is what you desired to see," whispered Fra Anselmo, on 
 entering. 
 
 The two young men took a few steps, then they both remained 
 standing as if frightened, throwing around them glances of surprise 
 at the splendor of color and form which surrounded them. 
 
 The entire frescoing of the room was just finished, the scaffolding 
 had been removed, only a few planks and ropes yet lay on the floor ; 
 some workmen were busied in removing these, also, while several 
 young people in light, bright-colored frocks over their garments, 
 stood together in a group at the window examining a drawing,, 
 which lay spread out before them on the window-sill. 
 
 After the two Germans had looked around awhile in silence at 
 that which met their eyes, Egino exclaimed : 
 
 " By my Creator ! Brother Martin, if one should threaten to cut 
 out my tongue, I could not remain dumb here, nor could I whisper 
 in a low tone. Something as if overpowering takes possession of me, 
 like the force of an existence which I had never anticipated, like an 
 intoxication ; not because I have drunken wine, but because I have 
 drunken something like the air of Heaven. Brother Martin, 
 Martin, do you not, then, feel as I do ? This is beautiful, beautiful 
 enough to die for, a world of beauty, before which one might 
 throw himself upon his knees in ravished devotion ! " 
 
 Brother Martin remained silent. He regarded in silence, with a
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 67 
 
 peculiarly glowing look, the picture which they call the " Disputa- 
 tion." Then he raised his head to contemplate the ceiling 
 pictures, the forms of Theology, Poesy, Philosophy, and Justice; 
 and finally, turning around, he let his eye rest a long time on the 
 wall opposite that on which was the "Disputation," on the 
 "Parnassus" and "The School of Athens." 
 
 "Now, Brother Martin," cried Egino again, "you cannot look 
 mute and silent upon all this ? " 
 
 Brother Martin passed his hand over his brow and face, as if to 
 collect himself. 
 
 " How could one look upon it otherwise than in silence ? " said he 
 then, half aloud. "It yields even a world of reflection." 
 
 " Of reflection ? Aye ! who can reflect here ? When great pin- 
 ions are placed upon your shoulders, what do you reflect ? Miser- 
 able soul to reflect then ; one strikes the wings together and soars 
 up, up, into the morning-glow, into the air of heaven, and into 
 the beam-world of the sun." 
 
 "So you feel, Count Egino," replied the German monk, as if in. 
 confusion and perplexity. " Here, however, is a celestial atmos- 
 phere in which I would tremble to soar and lose myself. In these 
 pictures is much of God ; for in beauty is always something of God, 
 and so is beauty also a virtue " 
 
 "But?" 
 
 "But," continued Brother Martin, "this virtue is led astray by 
 the serpent, and the Devil stands behind her." 
 
 "Oh ! now I could laugh if I did not feel so sacredly in earnest." 
 
 "Do not laugh! It is so; the race of man, the terrestrial body, 
 our miserable carnality presented in this unfettered beauty, is indeed 
 a deification of the creature, as if it were born without sin ! See 
 these forms ! Are they earthly creatures, born for pain as we men 
 are, and in need of redemption through the atoning blood of Christ ? 
 of pardon in order to live, in order not to be overcome with suffer- 
 ing ? Do they not stand there in proud self-sufficiency, and as if 
 they needed not justification, because they are justified through 
 themselves ? Does not this new art teach paganism in the house of 
 the Holy Father ? " 
 
 "Why not paganism," said Egino, "if paganism is so beautiful 
 as you say, so virtuous ? " 
 
 Brother Martin regarded him loftily ; he answered not ; he looked 
 again upon the forms of the pictures and became absorbed in the sight.
 
 68 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 In the meantime, out of the group of young people at the window, 
 he who had formed its central figure and led the conversation ex- 
 plaining the drawing, turned around. He was a man of a frame not 
 large, and more elegant than strong, of strikingly beautiful features, 
 with rich brown hair flowing down upon his shoulders. He carried 
 his head a little inclined forward on the long neck ; beautiful, wide- 
 open, brown eyes sparkled therein ; the skin was overspread with a 
 fine, olive-tinted paleness ; he had a thoroughly spiritual appearance, 
 almost imbuing one with melancholy. Coming a step nearer, he 
 fixed his eyes upon the German monk ; Fra Anselmo approached 
 him and whispered to him some words as of apology that he had 
 brought the strangers hither. The painter bowed, and then said, 
 smiling, " And what does that brother of your order say to his fellow- 
 countryman ? He seems not to be especially pleased with my work ? " 
 
 Thereupon he threw back his long hair with a motion of the head 
 which, for a man, had almost too much of grace and something of the 
 effeminate ; the voice with which he spoke had about it something 
 clear, silver-toned, which peculiarly penetrated the heart. 
 
 The German monk turned from the pictures and advanced a step 
 toward the painter, as if struck and attracted by this appearance. 
 
 Egino also could not do otherwise than withdraw his attention from 
 the pictures, in order to direct it toward the two men standing oppo- 
 site each other ; toward the beautiful, soul-lighted countenance of the 
 young painter, out of which looked forth a full, joyous nature, by the 
 side of a remarkable, an almost awe-inspiring earnestness, toward 
 the firmly chiseled head of the monk, which had about it nothing at- 
 tractive except the eyes, filled at this moment with an entirely char- 
 acteristic fire. It was as if out of the four eyes thus encountering 
 each other, intercrossing beams were thrown, invisible spirit fibers 
 drawn from each toward the other, seeking a union but unable to 
 find it. It was a mutual searching of souls and a daring challenge. 
 
 "What a head you have, good brother," then said the painter, 
 smiling with a meditative air ; " if I had seen it sooner, I might have 
 used it there among the men of the disputing church." 
 
 He pointed to the right at the picture of the "Disputation." 
 
 "Perhaps, however," he added, "you would not have consented to 
 that ; you put on a very earnest, and as if horrified, face at this 
 picture." 
 
 He had said this in tolerably fluent Latin, and Brother Martin 
 replied, in the same tongue :
 
 RAPHAEL SANTI.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 69 
 
 " Horrified, but only at the beauty of your representation, which 
 shows upon its face that you have read more in Plato's Symposium 
 than in the Bible." 
 
 The painter nodded, smiling. 
 
 " I have read Plato's Symposium, but also the Bible ; it has not, 
 as you say yourself, injured my pictures ? " 
 
 " Not your pictures, but perhaps the souls which become absorbed 
 in these pictures." 
 
 "And wherefore ?" 
 
 " Because they are like an intoxicating magic potion. This full- 
 ness of beauty is too great not to take the heart captive, and lull it 
 into a dangerous dream of human grandeur, greatness, and beauty. 
 Grant that you are only the pictures of fully developed mankind, yet 
 you also preach a sermon down from these walls, and you have 
 enough of beauty, of happiness, of inner harmony ; you beam forth 
 there as real kings of the world ; you have become there the embodi- 
 ment of eternal ideas, which your Grecian philosophy sends forth out 
 of the lap of the divine Being you need nothing more." 
 
 "And shall I not represent such beings?" said the young painter. 
 "Is the God of the Bible weaker, more powerless, than the eternal 
 Being of Plato ? And if this Being creates conceptions which, 
 being embodied, represent themselves as ideals of beautiful forms, 
 shall I then make accusation against them, and annihilate them 
 as heathenish, unchristian, and sinful ? Are the creatures of the 
 Christian God weaker, and less perfect ? Do you recognize as his 
 children only the deformed, who appear like the long, meager, 
 and wrinkled saints in your German, and, alas ! also in our Italian 
 cathedrals ? " 
 
 "The god of Plato is not our God," responded the German monk, 
 warmly. "The god of Plato is the god of the heathen world. 
 What the Old World represented, what the pagan artists depicted, 
 that is a world of happiness, of heroism, of victory, of physical 
 strength, of self-sufficiency, of present joy. The ancient dispen- 
 sation was that of earthly happiness ; the Christian is that of 
 pain. In former ages man belonged to material nature ; in the 
 Christian age, to the spirit. There prevails in Christ a contest 
 between man and nature. Sin has brought this contest about. The 
 contest continues till the entire separation of one from the other, 
 till death ; and thus our whole life is a painful struggle, a struggle 
 with self up to that dark door into the beyond, on whose threshold
 
 70 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 we break down, and through which a rescuing arm is extended 
 to snatch us within, into the stronghold of eternal peace. There- 
 fore, Master, you are wrong when you paint men in whom there is 
 no strife ; who cannot die, because their harmonious being stands 
 there in a glory of spirit and of form ; who have no sin ; and who 
 need not struggle until death. We are Christians, and know that 
 we need pardon if we would have life. I have contemplated many 
 an art treasure of antiquity which, here in this ancient city of the 
 world, has been rescued from destruction, and is now freely exposed 
 to the view of foreign visitors. From these I have found that the 
 Egyptians represented best the beauty of the animal ; the Greeks, 
 best the beauty of man ; the Christian, however, should best 
 represent the beauty of the soul : that should be their art. But you, 
 Master, paint gods incarnate." 
 
 While the monk ^spoke in this way the countenance of the young 
 painter had assumed an expression which strangely transformed it. 
 It was as if the breath of youthful beauty which played upon it had 
 gently withdrawn, in order to make room for an earnest, thoughtful 
 face with wrinkles of pain. The sockets of his eyes had grown 
 deeper ; the light tinge of red upon his cheeks had flown. 
 
 We possess a little drawing which was prepared by the hand of 
 the engraver Mark Antonio, and which gives to us a portrait of an 
 entirely different Raffaelle Santi from that which stands before the 
 eyes of the world according to the well-known pictures of him. 
 This picture makes a deeply seated and disturbing impression ; it 
 shows how even the richest and most happily endowed genius, the 
 most fully inspired soul, is not free from the difficult and painful 
 conditions under which the spirit of man surrounds itself with the 
 most artistic vision of the beautiful. The picture lets us look into a 
 desolate room, wherein stands an easel with an outstretched, empty 
 canvas; upon a seat is the painter, all sunken together, his head 
 bowed under the burden of his thoughts, his deep-set eyes wander- 
 ing around in uncertain search ; it appears to have made him chilly, 
 since he has thrown around him a broad mantle ; his form appears 
 emaciated from the exertion of wasting labor. 
 
 Something of this Raffaelle of Mark Antonio stood now before the 
 German monk. He crossed his arms upon his breast ; he looked 
 upon Brother Martin awhile in silence ; then, as if in absent-minded- 
 ness, he threw off the restraint of the Latin speech, and answered 
 in Italian :
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 71 
 
 "If you should say that in your cell beyond the mountains, 
 German monk, you would be right. Every system is of value so far 
 as it has power over the souls ; beyond this limit it becomes folly, 
 and the sport of children. As your system is not in me when I paint, 
 I cannot paint your agonizing men. Look there upon my creations. 
 If there is no sin in them, you see them free from an old curse, 
 whose stamp you imagine burnt upon the brow of all living ; now, 
 why do you not say, ' So much the better ? ' Believe me, if man is 
 born in pain and subject to death, he is, moreover, born to make 
 himself free from pain. Let me show to the world forms in which 
 there is no contest, but a harmony, between the mind and the soul ; 
 forms which, with a finer soul in a finer body, have found liberty, 
 and with the. liberty happiness, present joy; forms which are not 
 the servants of pain, but its masters. Perhaps, you call it, indeed, 
 a sermon ; perhaps this sermon has also its influence for good upon 
 man. Do you understand me ? " 
 
 "I understand, Signore Raffaelle," answered Brother Martin, in the 
 same tongue; "but let me continue to speak in Latin, as I speak it 
 more fluently than your Italian. I would let you paint your forms 
 as your eye beholds them, your mind creates them, as your marvel- 
 ously skillful hand knows how to conjure them forth in inimitable 
 perfection, if you did not thus preach too loudly, too pointedly, too 
 movingly. You not only place humanity there as it would be repre- 
 sented by the heathen, you also construct for yourself the world in 
 a manner Christ did not dare to see it built. Upon this wall, here, 
 you place the glorification of religion ; upon the opposite wall, where 
 jour sages stand assembled, the glorification of philosophy : there, 
 the church with her revelation ; here, the self-supporting mind of 
 man and the heroes of searching thought ! You give to them, also, 
 an equal right in your world! There, over our heads, in striking 
 beauty, Poesy and Law stand near Theology. Are they the 
 equally strong ground-pillars of your moral world ? Art, Law, 
 Philosophy are they the same to you as Religion? And do you 
 so present them in the house of the Successor of the Apostles 
 there, the Fathers of the church ? here, Apollo and his Muses ? 
 Parnassus opposite the Eucharist ? The mind which entertains such 
 :a view of earthly things can truly also create earthly men as gods, 
 as 'masters of pain.' 'You will be as God,' said the Serpent." 
 
 The painter again looked upon the monk earnestly, meditatively, 
 .as if lost in thought, and for a long time did not answer. What he
 
 72 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 heard might not, in the first place, have been understood by him ; 
 but, indeed, scarcely had words ever pressed themselves so firmly 
 and plainly over the lips of those who came to admire his works, or 
 to surround him as friends and patrons, and strew upon his life-path, 
 as roses, the homage and glorification which he still found always 
 and everywhere this path led him. And, truly, never had spectator 
 of his works, with such earnest look, recognized and spoken out 
 what was the historical import of his art, the anomaly of the 
 heathen, human principle in Christian art, and the beauty, attained 
 only at the cost of the most arbitrary union. 
 
 "Listen to me, monk," then he said, proudly raising his sunken 
 head : "you preach as you must that is your calling; but do not 
 let my art disturb you, and I shall not let your preaching disturb me.. 
 I place not only 'Law,' and 'Poesy,' and 'Worldly-wisdom' on an 
 equality with your ' Theology ' no, I even place there myself, the 
 living man. I know God has created me as I am, and with power to 
 accomplish what I do ; but I have expended a good and hard bit of 
 labor and sour sweat in order, by the help of the beloved God, to be- 
 come what I am. Now, however, if I have any force in me, it is a. 
 good force, to which, when I am in ardor of creating something, I 
 dare to give loose rein, full of confidence that it, having knowledge of 
 the right, will wander in the right ways. And so I do. Do you com- 
 plain that I paint forms not ecclesiastical ? I paint them as proper 
 men are ; if they prove not to be ecclesiastic, it must follow that 
 God has not created and appointed the right man for his churchdom. 
 If you wish to see struggling, fettered bodies, which strain their 
 muscles and prop their limbs under sin as under a weight of stone,, 
 just go into the chapel beyond, where Michael Angelo is painting. 
 If I were to do so I should commit a crime against myself, and be- 
 come a hypocrite, for I do not apprehend and see things in that way. 
 The painter's revelation is his eye. If you should command God to- 
 color his heavens no longer blue, but green, he would obey you as. 
 much as I those who desire of me to paint stiff, bound limbs and 
 lank bodies in the mantle of an ascetic, and no more the nude 
 shoulders of a pure woman like that Muse, there. Let there exist 
 under the mantle of the haggard saint the entire theology of Thomas 
 Aquinas, in the nude shoulders of the Muse is a higher theology, a 
 lesson of divine wisdom preached by beauty, and more of the eternal, 
 perhaps, than in the scholastic 'Summary.' And because you look 
 so clever out of your fiery eyes, German Brother, now take a lesson
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 73 
 
 from me. I have made myself free and so have found beauty. 
 You go, make yourself free, in order to find truth ! " 
 
 With that, Master Raffaelle Santi bowed to Brother Martin a cold, 
 proud leave-taking, beckoned to the other young men, and withdrew 
 accompanied by them. 
 
 The German monk looked after him with dark and wrinkled brow. 
 
 " You are confounded and silenced, Brother Martin ? " said Count 
 Egino, after a pause, during which he had been observing his com- 
 panion. 
 
 "Confounded! Yes; that I am," cried the monk; "and I think 
 you ought to be also ! There, beyond " he pointed in the direction 
 of St. Peter's Church "the Pope is tearing down the- sacred dome 
 of Christendom, in which are the graves of the Apostles, and every 
 spot hallowed through the veneration of a thousand years, in order 
 to erect a new work in the pagan style. Here, in his chambers, the 
 first painter of the world paints for him luminous paganism on the 
 walls. Now tell me, Count Egino, what is to become of the church, 
 if those who occupy the highest positions in the world, and if the 
 greatest minds, for the sake of art and beauty, turn their backs upon 
 her?" 
 
 " I don't know," answered Egino, shrugging his shoulders. " It 
 appears to me that if the highest minds will no longer come to the 
 church, the church in the end will do well to come to the minds. 
 You know the adage about Mahomet and the mountain ; and as you 
 are a learned man, you will best know whether I do right to answer 
 you with it." 
 
 Brother Martin made no response. He slowly raised his eyes to 
 the picture of the " Disputation." Egino's looks, however, hung 
 glowing and ravished upon the forms of the other walls. 
 
 "The beauty ! " at length exclaimed the latter. " Where does it lie 
 here ? I believe it lies in the spotless purity of these forms. When 
 this Mester von Urbino paints nude bodies, they stand there as if 
 beings gone forth from the lap of Nature, for which you require a veil 
 as little as for the tree past which your road leads. When you inhale 
 the fragrance of a flower, do you think of its sex ? Yes, yes in his 
 clear purity of soul lies the secret of this painter ; his bodies have 
 their beauty, as if they had developed so beautifully through their 
 own inner superiority. Therefore I do not inveigh against his 
 creations. You may call him pagan, if you will ; in his chastity lies 
 his Christianity ; and if he forces the pagan form to become the
 
 74 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 living, breathing expression of a pure and ideal soul, you should 
 praise, and not blame him." 
 
 " Come, come," said Brother Martin ; " let us go ; I have seen 
 enough. I have the heart-ache over this place."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A PICTURE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 HEN Egino again arrived at his dwelling, tired and almost 
 out of breath, he threw aside his dagger and hat, and 
 stretched himself upon his leathern couch ; with open 
 eyes he stared long at the opposite wall, a dark-blue, 
 whitewashed surface, with a red finishing-roll and green, interlacing 
 vines, which ran around as a border, and this border soon became 
 for him a confused medley of pictures. 
 
 He beheld before him the forms of Raphael as shifting shadows, 
 appearing and again vanishing ; upon the blue background they 
 swayed back and forth, coming and going, up and down, as if in a 
 spell of enchantment which would not leave him again, the Apollo 
 with his viol, the Poesy, the beautiful forms of the Muses, the Poet 
 and the Sage in their commingled glow of colors ; and then be- 
 tween them, before them, ruling over them all, and still as if belong- 
 ing to them, that other form which nevermore left Egino ! She was 
 as a being out of this world, as if stepping forth out of it into life, 
 a creation of the most gifted artist, who, in the intoxicating inspira- 
 tion of beauty, had called her into life she alone of all to breathe, 
 to live, and thus press back and cast in the shadow, all this lifeless 
 beauty in contrast with her own, warm and living. 
 
 And still, even if she lived, was she therefore for him, for Egino, 
 more than a picture ? Had he any more claim upon her than upon 
 all these lifeless forms ? What was it to him whether she breathed 
 or not ? whether or not her lips moved in speech ? whether or not 
 her lids rose and fell ? A word addressed to him could never come 
 over these lips ; in order to throw a glance upon him, these lids 
 could never be lifted ; she was nothing, nothing but a picture to 
 him, a shadowy picture of memory, forever. And on this account 
 the perfect wretchedness of the last few days again seized upon him, 
 though from it the hour just past had a little distracted him. The 
 
 75
 
 76 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 pictures of the master, which he had just now taken so warmly under 
 his protection, lost for him their enchanting colors ; they swam con- 
 fusedly before him and fled ; they lost their power over his soul, into 
 which pain again returned as if into its own exclusive place. A Ger- 
 man poet has said : 
 
 ,,3>af3 fte ant cfymerj, ben fie ju troften 
 9itcf)t nwjjte, tntlb tioriiberfittjrt, 
 (Svfemt id) at8 ber ^auber flrofjten, 
 SBotnit unS bie Slntife riil)rt." 
 
 Was it not also this which Egino now felt, that this art was not 
 the comforter of pain ; that she only sought mildly to lead one be- 
 yond it ; and if she failed in this charm, as a strange world thrust the 
 bleeding human heart from herself, and coolly showed it the way out 
 of her elevated, self-sufficient regions. Was it the intention of 
 Brother Martin finally to say this, and to upbraid the painter with it ? 
 Had it at once been clear and open to Brother Martin, what Egino 
 now for the first time believed himself to feel, when the forms of 
 the artist paled before him, that not 
 
 ,,burd) be @cf)mergen unfl 
 et \d\\en SSHcfen aufgegangen 
 S)ie tiefe SSelt ber Sfjriftenfunft, " 
 
 of an art, which must be produced by a different life principle, in 
 order to avail more than the antique to be able to console, to heal, 
 and to save. 
 
 Suffice it to say, Egino forgot the pictures, and gradually all his 
 thoughts drew again into the same channel, toward the same 
 object. 
 
 With entirely different thoughts was Brother Martin busy as he 
 wended his way home to his cloister. 
 
 All that he had found out and observed in this Roman world, in 
 which he had now tarried some weeks, and which became the more 
 shocking to him the more he became acquainted with the foreign 
 tongue, stood in most direct opposition to his preconceived notions. 
 With his deeply seated religious nature, he had applied to everything 
 the measuring-rod of his theology. And nothing would conform to 
 it ! But the appearances which disturbed him, because they seemed 
 to withdraw themselves entirely from his theological measuring-staff, 
 he had gradually submitted to a species of powerful dialectics, and
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 77 
 
 thus gotten rid of them till they no more disturbed his peace, and 
 till the optimism of his faithful soul had become their master. 
 
 The church, as he had seen, had a thousand drawbacks. With an 
 open cynicism simony prevailed in it. Worldly and uncultivated 
 men clothed themselves in priests' attire in order to drive bargains 
 with the favors a'nd treasures of the church. And men, as one 
 when a scholar at home took upon himself the vexations which the 
 system of fagging imposed, in order thereafter to be received into a 
 higher schools, took the vexations which the church inflicted upon 
 them. They fasted ; they prayed off the whole chaplet ; they pur- 
 chased indulgences, dispensations, masses ; they bowed before the 
 priests, who despised them for their conduct ; they tortured their 
 mother-wit and their intellect, in order to believe a thousand incred- 
 ible things, all this, that they might then be received into heaven. 
 They laid up in a savings-box, in order to receive a great capital of 
 heavenly joy. 
 
 That was all shocking ! The church had become something of 
 which the miracle-working Mother of God in Sant Agostino pre- 
 sented a striking image. How she sat there ! Surrounded with a 
 dazzling light ; adorned with garments of silk and cloth-of-gold ; a 
 lofty, diamond-sprinkled imperial crown upon her head ; strings of 
 diamonds and pearls of inestimable value upon her neck, her 
 arms, at her feet knelt, in the dust, hundreds of men murmuring 
 prayers ! 
 
 Upon the lap of the figure, however, there rested a corpse. The 
 Christ, whom this image of the church held upon her knees, was a 
 corpse. The Christ of the gospel, who had uttered the Sermon on 
 the Mount and the words, " You shall pray in spirit and in truth," 
 he was dead ; he had died upon the knees of this woman. Also 
 they did not pray to him ; men bestowed their veneration upon the 
 woman in the dress of gold-cloth and strings of pearls. 
 
 So sounded forth often Brother Martin's secretly wrathful 
 thoughts, when he looked about him in the holy city of Christen- 
 dom. But he silenced these thoughts. Did there not lie at hand 
 consolation a hundred-fold ? What effect had all this upon the 
 inner being of the church ? They were only temporal appearances, 
 which must fall away, like the hull from the kernel when it is ripe. 
 Christ had arisen after three days, and could arise again from the 
 lap of the woman with the imperial crown. The Rock Peter had 
 been established for eternity. The infallibility of doctrine must,
 
 78 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 by degrees, remove the sores, the excrescences, the diseased 
 material ; arid the Master must purify his house it was only a 
 question of time. 
 
 > And thus had also the General of his order spoken to him when 
 he, sometimes, in the anxiety of his heart, had knocked at the 
 former's cell, the largest, finest, and most comfortably fitted up 
 of the cloister. This mild and free-thinking man had then received 
 him in a paternal way. Fra Egidius von Viterbo was a man of bril- 
 liant attainments, who, in his youth, had distinguished himself as a 
 poet, and who, among the honor-bearers of the church, was promi- 
 nent for his breadth of spiritual view. That had Brother Martin 
 joyously found out even in the first weeks after he, with his full, 
 piously ardent heart had arrived in the " Eternal City " ; and now, out 
 of that which he saw and experienced, the first cold showers poured 
 themselves over this pious flame. He had then, indeed, half indig- 
 nant and rebellious, half as one pleading for help, fled to this man, 
 and complained to him how the readers of the Mass there below in 
 the church of the order sneered at him because he took it so earn- 
 estly, and did it so slowly; and how impatiently they had called out 
 to him, "Go on ! go on ! " yes, how he had observed that during the 
 Mass they had uttered blasphemous things ; that they had amused 
 themselves with filthy jesting how he, under the impression of all 
 this, in a puzzled frame of mind had ascended the Holy Stair, and 
 how, suddenly, in the midst of the disagreeable gliding from step to 
 step, a disgust at all works of sanctification had seized him, so that 
 he defiantly arose and walked down. Upon hearing this, Egidius von 
 Viterbo had consoled him with a kind of mild condescension to his 
 childish feelings, to his honest inexperience ; then, also, had scolded 
 him, as well, on account of his hypercritical nature, which would not 
 let him take the world as he found it ; and, finally, always referred to 
 the unchanging, eternal principle of the church standing high above 
 earthly, mutable forms and human frailties, the Paraclete, the 
 Spirit remaining with and in it. 
 
 With this .Brother Martin had consoled himself. But to-day 
 something penetrated his being which would no more be silenced 
 through such a consolation. 
 
 For the immoral priesthood, for the thoughtless service of God, 
 for the filth, for the wickedness, for the corruption, there was a con- 
 solation ; but where was -the consolation for that which the beautiful, 
 rising unrestrained in opposition to his holiness, had hurled into his
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 79 
 
 soul ? As these thoughts rushed together over his head, a deep 
 anxiety seized upon him. What avail to him then was his trust in 
 the eternity of the Rock of Peter ? Did it assure to him the 
 eternity of the mastery of this Rock over the lives of men ? Did 
 there not erect itself a new power threateningly before his eyes ? 
 Did there not lie in this world of culture a monstrous insurrection, 
 nourishing its growth at the breasts of a classic past, and no longer 
 allowing minds to be guided, or bodies to be mastered, by the church ? 
 Did not science already turn itself away from her ? Did not art, 
 especially in that which it created, throw to her the gauntlet ? Had 
 these Erasmuses, these Reuchlins, these Agricolas, and Heginses 
 so willed to lead men to a culture which then would also despise the 
 voice of the church, when she, sounding forth, called them back 
 under her wings ? Had not also the people of the Jews been only a 
 small heap, a narrow island of humanity ? Could not the church of 
 the future, with her Rock Peter, become such an insignificant rock- 
 island, on which the waves of life and of history might overflow 
 without noting it ? 
 
 Like an ice-cold bath these thoughts showered around the 
 German monk. With grievous force there pressed upon his spirit 
 the anxious fear that there could be a "too late " for the reformation 
 of the church, which the previous century had demanded ; that 
 there could lie in the infidelity of the cultured men of his time 
 whom the church had offended, not merely a wandering from the 
 right way, from the truth, but also an evolution, a stepping forward 
 of humanity upon another way, in order to seek the truth. 
 
 No, no ; it must have been a fearful apostasy of the world from 
 Christ ! And through Christ alone could it become rectified, could 
 it receive pardon here and become saved hereafter. But, indeed, it 
 was time that from the lap of the diamond-bedizened woman in the 
 dress of gold-cloth, the corpse, newly alive, should arise, and, as 
 master of the world, call man again to himself. It was time. Then, 
 then, too, must the world obey. Brother Martin had been reared 
 in scholasticism ; he was a theologian, he was a monk. He was 
 even in this moment hierarch enough to think of the penal power of 
 the church, of compulsion and violence against the insurrection ! 
 
 Thus had the pictures of Raphael aroused him, alarmed him. He 
 had at home seen many pictures ; beautiful delineations by Lucas 
 Sunder from Cronach, who painted such soulful faces of the saints ; 
 also some by Albert Diirer and Lucas von Leyden. This had all
 
 So LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 been perfectly pious and lovely, and had spoken to his soul ; when he 
 looked upon their work, it had refreshed his soul as a beautiful 
 chime of bells. 
 
 What was all this, however, in comparison with this Raphael ? 
 Their work had submitted itself to faithful ecclesiastical representa- 
 tions, as music to the words of a song. Here, however, was the free 
 culture of his age, the self-sustaining human mind stepping before 
 him in its most beautiful, most refined, most triumphant form, 
 humanistic culture, the tenor of the century, in its pride, in its 
 triumph. 
 
 Must not something lie therein to disturb the c'ompass of the 
 German monk, to make him low-spirited, and then to lay upon 
 the brow of this powerful nature an expression as of challenge, 
 as if an impulse to contest and action flashed up in him ? 
 
 And still he was very unhappy. Why was there at hand no friend 
 of kindred depth of nature, to whom he might unburden himself ? 
 He felt an impulse to speak with a friend. To Fra Egidius he 
 could not betake himself ; he was absent on a journey. He would 
 speak to the brethren of his order of the condition of the church and 
 such things. They could not be blind to that which filled his 
 thoughts. So he came home. The brethren were in the garden 
 of the cloister. When he entered the garden he saw his hour 
 had been badly chosen. He saw them in their white habits in a 
 bright heap, moving about in a lively manner, calling, laughing, 
 throwing stones. Brother Martin drew nearer, and perceived what 
 they were doing. 
 
 It aroused him ; it made his heart bleed. They were having their 
 sport with a poor hare, which, in some manner, had come into the 
 garden. Perhaps a peasant had caught him alive, and brought him 
 to the brother cook for the cloister kitchen. By a long string fastened 
 to his hind leg they had bound him to the stem of an orange tree. 
 Thus they threw at him with stones, and exercised themselves in 
 striking him. Sneers and cries of ridicule became the part of those 
 who missed him ; loud laughter and merriment broke out when the 
 poor animal, which dragged behind him the other unbound hind leg, 
 broken and bleeding, became struck in spite of the leaps he made in 
 his agony of fright. The entire heartlessness of the Roman vented 
 itself upon the helpless animal devoted by the church. 
 
 With a few hasty strides Brother Martin stood in their midst. 
 With these people 'could he indeed not speak of that which stirred
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 81 
 
 him so deeply. He said nothing except this : " He who loves the 
 Lord loves also his creatures ; " but he said this with pale, trembling 
 lips, with such a tone that they quietly allowed him, in passing out, 
 to break with strong hand the thread, to hide the poor animal in his 
 black cape, and to carry it to his cell, in order to protect it, and to 
 see whether he could heal and save it.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SECRET OF THE HANDICRAFT. 
 
 |T was upon the riext day in the afternoon. Egino had lain 
 down for a siesta, but had sought slumber in vain. He 
 had lain so a long while, and now shut his eyes, and sigh- 
 ing and weary laid his head back upon the cushion of his 
 couch. The door was softly opened ; it must be his servant, and 
 without opening his eyes, he said in a low tone : 
 
 " Bring me some water, Gotz ; I wish a drink." 
 
 He heard the steps of some one passing out over the matting of 
 his floor. 
 
 After awhile they returned, and a gentle voice said : 
 
 "Here is water, sir." 
 
 He opened his eyes, and saw, standing before him, Irmgard in 
 her disguise of a boy. 
 
 "Irmgard ! " cried he in surprise ; "is it you ? " 
 
 "It is I, sir. You desired to drink ; here is a cup of fresh water." 
 
 She reached him the cup, which she bore in her right hand, and at 
 the same time fastened her eye sharply upon his features. 
 
 "I thank you, maiden; I thought it was my servant to whom I 
 gave the order. Why do you look at me so inquiringly ? And why 
 do you still always stick yourself in the clothing of a boy ? " 
 
 "That, sir, you would have found out, if you once again should 
 have had the goodness to inquire after your poor fellow-country- 
 men," she answered, with a tone of quiet reproof. 
 
 "Yes, yes ; I had really forgotten you. Forgive me," said Egino, 
 with a sigh. " Seat yourself beside me, there, and talk to me." 
 
 "As to your second question, sir: I looked at you so sharply be- 
 cause I believed to read in your features that it does not go much 
 better with you here in this strange land than with us poor people. 
 You are sick, you are so pale " 
 
 " Am I ? Well, yes ; I am a little sick. You are right. I have 
 
 82
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 83 
 
 brought away with me a little contagion from a corpse, it seems. 
 But speak of yourself. Why do you say it doesn't go well with you ? 
 What has happened ? " 
 
 " Nothing more than that they laugh -at poor Uncle Kraps, where- 
 ever he lets himself be seen and wherever he opens his mouth. 
 And what is worse, they laugh at him, also, even then the most, 
 when he comes with his request to become something great and dis- 
 tinguished here. They likewise laugh at me with my zeal to speak 
 for him, when I speak in the language of men here, and therein 
 make a hundred mistakes. We have, as you know, through Donna 
 Ottavia's kindness, found a good lodging with an honest woman, 
 who gives us food and shelter ; but a friendly hearing from the men 
 to whom they advised us to go we have not." 
 
 " And do you go always in this costume with your uncle ? " 
 
 "Can I do otherwise?" answered Irmgard, blushing. "The 
 men, the young men, and also the older ones, and those in priestly 
 garb not the least, are so shameless ! If I as a maiden go alone 
 upon the streets, with my foreign appearance and blonde hair, " 
 
 " Poor child ! " said Egino, sighing, and rising to walk slowly up 
 and down his chamber. " I fear all we innocent German bloods 
 have come not for our happiness into this Roman world neither 
 you nor I, nor, perhaps, even the wonderful monk, who disturbs 
 himself over the pictures of Master Raphael." 
 
 " Of what monk do you speak ? Of the same of whom you said 
 he could help us ?" 
 
 "Of the same, of Brother Martin, from Wittenberg." 
 
 "On his account I have just come to you, sir. I thought that if I 
 complained to you of our need, you would show me the kindness to 
 take me to him, that I may beg him to speak for us with his brother 
 of the order in the papal palace." 
 
 Egino shook his head. 
 
 " To-day it would do no good, Irmgard. Brother Martin is 
 troubled ; something has, as it were, revolutionized his whole soul." 
 
 "And what has happened to him, to Brother Martin? " 
 
 " What has happened to him ! Can I make it plain to you ? They 
 say whoever unveils the Truth and looks upon its countenance must 
 die. The monk has looked upon the countenance of Beauty, and 
 has at least become sick from it." 
 
 " That has more frequently happened, not only to poor monks, at 
 the sight of beauty," answered Irmgard, with a fleeting smile.
 
 84 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 "Yes, yes ; still, I didn't mean it that way. The monk has looked 
 upon a different beauty, and thereby has made the discovery that a 
 movement, growth, and development has come into the world which 
 is growing out over his church roof. Imagine that the mind of man 
 is a beautiful palm, which some one has nurtured in a glass house ; 
 and in order that the glass house by which it has been cared for and 
 protected may not burst, he has cut, capped, and deformed it. Now, 
 however, this tree so pruned will bear no more fruit ; the young 
 shoots and sap are too powerful ; the strong boughs press against 
 the roof and glass as if they would burst through it " 
 
 "Then must he make the house wider and more airy," said 
 Irmgard. 
 
 "Truly so ; but can the poor monk order that, or bring it about ?" 
 
 " And he is troubled about that ? " 
 
 "About that and, indeed, a little, also, that the wicked palm 
 which threatens to break his house into atoms is so wonderfully 
 beautiful " 
 
 " I don't understand you," answered Irmgard. " But what is it, 
 then, that causes you to say your coming hither is not for your 
 happiness ? " 
 
 "With me it is another thing and still, in the end, the same. 
 As they have restrained the living palm tree under the dead glass 
 house, so have they also here fettered the living to the dead, and 
 made the dead master of the living. That is their wisdom here in 
 Rome, to make the grave master over the living, the letter over the 
 spirit, and the dead over that which breathes " 
 
 "You speak to me in nothing but riddles, sir," said Irmgard, dis- 
 couraged, supporting her head upon her hand. " In this lies poor 
 consolation for me ; and for consolation I came to you." 
 
 " If I did not speak in riddles, could it be a comfort to you ? The 
 affair is, for once, inconsolable, believe me." 
 
 She opened her eyes and observed him again. 
 
 " You appear as if you had not slept for nights, and as if you had 
 had no rest or quiet for days. That must indeed indicate something 
 inconsolable for you. It would be a comfort to me if you would tell 
 me what oppresses you ; for it would show me that you have confi- 
 dence in me." 
 
 "And do you wish my confidence, Irmgard?" 
 
 "I mean you owe it to me." 
 
 " And why do I owe it ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 85 
 
 She regarded him with a peculiar glance, in which lay something 
 questioning, almost wondering. 
 
 " Well, yes, "she said then, after awhile ; "it seems so to me, truly. 
 But you are right that you find such a speech presumptuous in mef, 
 in a poor maid from the common people. I know not what is in me 
 that makes me speak so openly ! You see, at least, that I trust you, 
 when I speak so openly what I think even the foolish things." 
 
 "I believe that you are an honorable, faithful soul, Irmgard, 
 and therefore do not call yourself a poor maid from the common 
 people. For what purpose is such false humility ? You are rich, be- 
 cause you have a pure and warm heart. For that reason also, I 
 will gratify you by ceasing to speak in riddles. Listen to me. One 
 evening it was about ten or twelve days since a friend of mine 
 took me with him into the palace of a great nobleman here named 
 Savelli, up on the Aventine. You have seen the castle up there 
 near the great Dominican monastry of Santa Sabina." 
 
 "I have been in Santa Sabina also there?" 
 
 " There I was to serve my friend as a kind of witness, and to look 
 upon a marriage ceremony. I witnessed the ceremony. The bride 
 was a ravishingly beautiful woman, and the bridegroom was dead ! " 
 
 " Dead ! the bridegroom ? " 
 
 "So I said." 
 
 "So the ceremony amounted to nothing ? " 
 
 "No, no ! They plighted the living to the dead." 
 
 "What you say is incredible ! " 
 
 "And still it is so; and in Rome not so incredible, after all. They 
 also wed the living spirit of man with a dead institution ; there the 
 bridegroom is living and the bride dead. You gaze upon me, 
 Irmgard ; do you believe that I have become mad ? " 
 
 Egino laughed bitterly. 
 
 "I must almost believe it, sir." 
 
 " Perhaps you would not be far wrong. I have become mad ; my 
 soul has been snatched from me since that moment ; my mind is no 
 longer my own ; my entire thought and aim are directed to a single 
 one only one in all this world. I wish to free this living being 
 from her dead. O my God ! let me not be overwhelmed in the mad- 
 ness which flashes through my brain when I think that I must, must 
 and yet cannot ! Let me not be crushed under this iron weight which 
 the horror, the powerlessness lays upon me ! " 
 
 Egino uttered this with such a tone of despair, that Irmgard, hor-
 
 86 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 rifled, raised her head. Silently she followed with her glance his 
 form moving slowly back and forth. 
 
 "You are right," said Irmgard, after a long pause, "that we have 
 come here to become inwardly distressed. But perhaps," she added 
 after awhile with a sigh, " must the soul of man through tribulation 
 attain to its rest. Let Brother Martin see how he will manage his 
 palm tree, which will truly give him enough to do ; for us, even it 
 does not appear impossible to get rid of our trouble. You lead away 
 your beautiful bride, since you are a living man ; I will entice, the 
 best I can, my unhappy Uncle from the folly which led him here, 
 and so we will withdraw homeward over the mountains, somewhat, 
 yes, very much wiser." 
 
 "You speak as you understand it." 
 
 " Show me that I do not understand it." 
 
 " If the Savelli have done anything so criminal, so monstrous, as 
 they have done when they wedded that woman to a dead man, they 
 must have had urgent grounds for acting so. There must have been 
 for them much depending upon having this woman bear the name of 
 Savelli, very much. They, at least, wish her to carry what she 
 possesses into the house. They would know how to make it quite 
 certainly impossible for her to bear any other name." 
 
 Irmgard nodded her head. 
 
 " But if some one could be found to rescue her out of the power 
 of the Savelli," said she, thoughtfully, "some man courageous 
 enough " 
 
 "Courageous enough," said Egino, cutting short her speech; "of 
 what use is courage here ? I know that I am perfectly powerless 
 against them." 
 
 "Don't you know anyone who could lead you as a harmless 
 foreigner into their house, into the circle of the family ? " 
 
 " Then must I play the hypocrite before them ! And dare I 
 think of that since Signer Callisto has introduced me into the 
 palace as a young lawyer accompanying him ? " 
 
 "And could you not appear again as a young lawyer? " 
 
 "Impossible already impossible; because, if I could do it, I 
 would not go into the presence of Corradina in a lying mask noth- 
 ing would move me to it." 
 
 " Then you have poor prospects : with open force you will not be 
 able to accomplish it." 
 
 "Certainly not."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 87 
 
 Irmgard rested her brow upon her hands. She bit her lips fast 
 together ; the mute play of her countenance showed an inner strug- 
 gle, some kind of difficult turning over in the mind. Then 
 slowly lifting her face she said, with a forced jocularity : 
 
 "For the poor Henry, a maid was found who gave to him her 
 blood to save him ; for you, Count Egino, it shall not be said here- 
 after that no maid was found who would give to you her innermost 
 thoughts in order to save you ; for it seems to me you need saving 
 more than your Corradina." 
 
 "And what are your innermost thoughts, Maid Irmgard, which 
 you will give to me ? " 
 
 " In the first place, if you will not think evil that I consider you very 
 helpless and dispirited ; and that you must also come to one's aid 
 with good strokes ; and that your passion for this woman must be 
 very cool if a little lie, a little bit of pretence, necessary to attain 
 the goal, is esteemed an insurmountable obstacle between it and its 
 object." 
 
 "A lie?" 
 
 " Well, yes. Is not this Corradina of sufficient value to you, that 
 for her sake you may so far humiliate your pride as to lie ? It is as 
 often a necessity as anything else ! Could you not do it at all ? " 
 
 " Now, by God ! for Corradina's sake I could try it. Whether it 
 would be a success, I know not." 
 
 " Well, try it ; for without deception you will not create for your- 
 self an approach to her." 
 
 " And with deception would it succeed ? And you, Irmgard, if 
 you know how to bring it about, how ? " 
 
 "I know how to help yes," she said, "if you promise to thank 
 me for it, and not to despise us on account of that which I must 
 confess to you beforehand." 
 
 " Despise I despise you ? And how should I then " 
 
 "Listen to me. My Uncle Kraps, you know, is a bell-founder by 
 trade." 
 
 " I know, I know." 
 
 " And you know also that, when in a city at home the metal for 
 pouring a bell is in the smelting oven, the old crones and the pious 
 people come and bring all kinds of silverware, in order that it, mixed 
 with the brass, may give a better sound ; they believe this is a gift 
 especially pleasing to God." 
 
 "I know that, too."
 
 88 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " But not that it is a superstition ! The silver does not conduce 
 to purity of tone ; it only destroys it. Seventy-seven parts copper, 
 twenty-one parts tin, and two parts bismuth that gives the right 
 ring. But whatever you will, the people will not allow themselves- 
 to believe anything but that it will not go without their silver, and 
 that without such offering the bells would never do the right service, 
 nor could ring away the thunder-storms and everything else they 
 should do. And so, sir, it is one of the secrets of the handicraft. 
 Every handicraft, you know, has its secrets and hereditary tricks,, 
 which other people not belonging to it have no need to know. One 
 of the secrets of the bell-founder's trade is not to waste the silver 
 brought to them by spoiling with it the tone of their bell. They 
 take the silver and cast it through the chimney of their furnace, ap- 
 parently into the mass of metal, before the eyes of the people ; but, 
 in truth, in throwing it they give it such a turn that it falls obliquely,, 
 sidewise, into the hole for the ashes under the fire." 
 
 " I understand," exclaimed Egino ; " also on this account is Uncle 
 Kraps so rich ? " 
 
 Irmgard, with rather a shy glance, observed the expression of his 
 features. 
 
 "You must not, therefore, think evil of him of us, sir; it is 
 just " 
 
 "A secret of the craft! " broke in Egino, smiling. "I find that 
 Uncle Kraps has acted very wisely in not explaining anything openly 
 to those old wives of Ulm which would have disturbed them with 
 great anxiety at every thunde'r-storm ; so now go on." 
 
 "So," said Irmgard, "we have gotten all kinds of silver things,, 
 among them some that seemed to Uncle Kraps too good for melting. 
 He is like a child, you know ; and when he anywhere received a piece 
 that pleased him, it was like a plaything to him, which he could not 
 make up his mind to give out of his hands." 
 
 Egino nodded his head, but, at the same time, looked at Irmgard 
 most inquiringly, and in suspense as to whither all this might tend. 
 
 " You are wondering what I intend to do with my silver toy," she 
 put in, smiling; "only hear me further. Among the things, now, 
 which pleased Uncle so that he let it go unmelted, and brought it 
 here with him, along with some engraved vases, and figures of the 
 saints, and embossed work, is a little altar-piece with two wings 
 made to clasp together. Upon the middle piece, not larger than a 
 man's fist, is to be seen, in fine work artistically embossed, the holy
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 89 
 
 Dominicus, as he kneels before the Mother of God with the child ; 
 and she shows to him the white dress of the order with the black 
 scapulary, with the little cap attached, in which the Dominicans go 
 about. Upon the wings of the altar-piece is, upon one the dream of 
 the saint's mother of the little dog having in his muzzle the torch 
 which lights the world, and upon the other the saint is represented 
 as he makes alive again the dead architect struck down under a 
 fallen house." 
 
 " And this silver-work ? " 
 
 " This silver-work you should go to offer at the altar of the holy 
 Dominicus in his cloister Santa Sabina, in order thereby to make 
 the monks of Santa Sabina your best friends." 
 
 "Ah! And then?" 
 
 " And when you then present to the prior of Santa Sabina the 
 request to be received for three or four weeks into his cloister, in 
 order to perform exercises therein, you can be sure to receive no 
 negative answer." 
 
 "I Count Egino von Ortenburg shall perform exercises with 
 these dogs of the Lord ? " said Egino, with restrained laughter. 
 
 " Why not ? If you will not do it in the belief that it will re- 
 dound to the welfare of your soul, then do it in the faith that in the 
 course of four weeks you can certainly find an opportunity to see 
 and to speak to the woman who has bewitched you, and who dwells 
 almost under the same roof with these ' dogs of the Lord,' perhaps 
 daily walks about in the same garden with them." 
 
 " Indeed, Irmgard, your thought is excellent it is good, very 
 good ; and so be it, therefore," exclaimed Egino, excitedly. " I will 
 do as you say ; I will, if necessary, make myself a monk among 
 these black-white men-burners ; I will let their homilies go over 
 me without betraying in my countenance what I think of all this 
 monkery. Give me your artistic tablet ; I will pay Uncle Kraps for 
 it as if it weighed in gold what it weighs in silver." 
 
 " Wherefore ?" asked Irmgard, who regarded his excitement with 
 a look out of which spoke something like care or depression. 
 " Wherefore ? " she asked, coolly. 
 
 "Because your advice is inestimable." 
 
 " Look upon it that way, then, and give up wishing to pay for it." 
 
 "You not, but Uncle Kraps." 
 
 Irmgard did not answer. 
 
 " Can it not be right away, to-day ? " cried Egino.
 
 9 o LUTHER IN ROME, 
 
 " If you long so after the life of the cloister," she responded, 
 smiling painfully, "why not? I am going to bring you the jewel," 
 she said then, rising. 
 
 " Go, go bring it. If we make use of the time, I can this very 
 night sleep in a cell in Santa Sabina. While you are gone I will 
 give Gotz his instructions." 
 
 Irmgard reached him her hand quickly ; he wished to say to her 
 by a warm pressure how very much she had placed him under 
 obligation ; but she drew it hastily away again. She avoided meet- 
 ing his eyes, lighted with joy and hope, and the next moment had 
 disappeared from the chamber. 
 
 When she was outside, in the street, she went slowly, with her 
 eyes fastened upon the ground. Before the Church of San Silvestro, 
 at the end of the street where Egino lived, she remained standing a 
 moment ; then turned to the door of the church, lifted high the heavy 
 leathern curtain which covered the entrance, and walked into the 
 dark little vestibule, which was separated from the nave of the 
 church by a high grating. Did she wish to pray in the cool twilight 
 room ? It seemed not ; she seated herself upon the dark wooden 
 bench which ran along the wall, folded idly, and as if weary, her 
 hands upon her lap, and thus stared into the church, but as if into 
 empty space. 
 
 The round-arched window over the altar in front of her was 
 curtained with a green material. It must have been the reflection 
 of this color which made Irmgard's features so frightfully pale.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HOW THE SOUL-PLANT GROWS. 
 
 |NLY a few weeks before, even on the day on which he had 
 in such enthusiastic terms depicted to Donna Ottavia the 
 impression which Rome made upon him, Egino would 
 have repelled the thought upon which he was now so 
 rashly and eargerly about to act. 
 
 To introduce himself into a house under a false pretence ; to lie ; 
 to feign a religious need which he did not feel, he would have 
 found it impossible ! 
 
 But his nature had, in this short interval, made a whole circle of 
 evolution. The plant of his soul had been set in this Rome as in a 
 forcing hot-house ; it had put forth the gigantic shoots of a banana, 
 of a wild vine, in the heated, excited atmosphere wherein he had 
 now lived for months. 
 
 The soul of man, with all its life of thought and feeling, is a plant 
 needing a soil to which it may cleave, with which it may entwine its 
 roots, into which it may strive to grow. There is an inner depend- 
 ent being. Man is bound to something, while the animal is free. 
 The lion roams through his desert, the eagle circles about his rocks, 
 and the fox hunts through the forest ; when the appetites upon which 
 their life depends are appeased, they live in satisfaction. There is 
 something absolute about the animal ; it is on account of his nature. 
 In him is the peace and rest of self-sufficiency; he has in him some- 
 thing of that to which the highest human wisdom or the profoundest 
 depths of knowledge cannot attain, which the East Indian view 
 of the world portrays when it names the limit of man's upward 
 development the Nirvana. This feeling of satisfied existence, which, 
 at most, comes to us in some moments like flashes of light, which 
 lighten upon our restless being and which we call moments of 
 joy, remains unknown as a continuous state to the soul-plant of 
 our nature. It has always to seek a soil for its roots, a hold for its 
 
 9'
 
 92 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 climbing tendrils. So long as it is young it throws itself forward to 
 meet external appearances. As the flower turns its head to the sun, 
 so it turns itself toward the glitter of life, toward all that appears 
 full of grandeur and triumph. It revels in the fullness of great and 
 dazzling appearances. It shoots forth in the history of the past, 
 of the present ; the plant lays its searching tendrils about glittering, 
 but often hollow images. 
 
 Experiences come ; the school of life gives compulsory instruction 
 about the worth and the kernel of outward appearances, about the 
 smallness and poverty of earthly greatness. Man turns himself from 
 things to the idea of things ; having become sharp-sighted, he seeks 
 to unite his life to the life of thought, to the mind-world. He 
 stretches himself upward to the great ground-pillars of philosophic 
 truths ; in intercourse with the abstract and with the struggling after 
 higher standpoints, he climbs to another trellis, which he entwines 
 above, in order from its heights to obtain a view of the infinite. 
 
 But this is only for awhile ; upon this struggle follows resigna- 
 tion : the searching glances, which would sweep into the infinite, 
 return discouraged and weary. They turn themselves from the 
 misty, dazzling appearances, to the only one which they have suc- 
 ceeded in searching out ; but there the soul cannot be without 
 clinging to something outside of itself, so it seeks something new 
 with the spirit. Upon the mental evolution of human culture fol- 
 lows the spiritual. It throws all its force to this side, and at the 
 end of the growth-period it strikes out into still, gentle, modest 
 blossoms of the heart, which could not burst forth without another 
 something, a something foreign to itself, which it needs, for which 
 they are, and through which they live. 
 
 In Egino had a similar circuit completed itself within a short time. 
 Within a brief space impulses the most diverse had become power- 
 ful in him ; it was as if within weeks he had run through that 
 development which, at other times, might fill out a human life. 
 
 The dazzling appearances of Rome had at first taken deep hold 
 upon him, as if unhinged him, made him dizzy. Still, on that morn- 
 ing in the "parva domus" this impulse had sounded itself fully out ; 
 but near to that which inspired and thoroughly filled him, stood too 
 close that which repelled, aroused, and irritated him. And after the 
 experience in the house of Savelli, the enthusiasm subsided, 
 turned to ashes. It had brought about a revolution of his entire 
 being. In the hours of his solitary wanderings about he had often
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 93 
 
 yielded to fits of deep melancholy ; often had looked with bitterness 
 upon the world around him here, which, so short a time before, had 
 been so charming to him. Then, again, he would succeed in wrest- 
 ling against this ; in tearing himself away from the pain ; in saving 
 himself through quiet, plain consideration and composed reckoning 
 with the facts. He had then been strong enough to find this com- 
 posure. But there had lain for him no consolation in that which the 
 reckoning enabled him to find. He was too young to console him- 
 self, as Callisto had done, with the resigned "nil admirari;" he 
 brooded over the how and the wherefore of a history whose frag- 
 ments lay around him, at some day to be covered with the layers of 
 new fragments and ruins. What remained of it all ? What was the 
 eternal essence and import of these appearances ? For what pur- 
 poses did the centuries work upon stupendous structures which again 
 fell into ruin and became dwarfed upon religions, states, and uni- 
 versal empires, like this of Rome ? Thus questioning himself, he 
 was led to meditate upon the great cosmology which, like a gray, 
 heathen goddess of Destiny, sat upon old Rome, or like a gloomy 
 Christian sibyl stretched out her hand over new Rome, and in dark 
 oracles informed her of the on-rolling, annihilating waves of the 
 future. This absorption in the import of the world surrounding 
 him, in the philosophy of the fixed fact, Rome, was something which 
 filled him with endless sadness, depression, and hopelessness. There 
 was a nihilistic nucleus in that great cosmology, which oppressed 
 Egino's youthful soul ; he dared not look into the eyes of that great 
 goddess of Destiny, as if feeling that the lightning of her glance could 
 make the blood in his veins stiff with cold. The thought of nonen- 
 tity is as a drop of prussic acid : it stuns, it stops henceforth, in a 
 youthful heart, every warm life-throb ; and in this impulse, this 
 agitation, this fermentation, Egino's whole being had yielded itself 
 so much the more fully to the new current, the current of passion, 
 into which it rushed the more inconsiderately, as bound with it was 
 a kind of escape from a painful and unhappy condition. It was an 
 escape from anxiety over a doctrine, a truth, which he saw rising 
 before him, and would not see ; a doctrine which is poison for the 
 young, and not always a wholesome drink for the old. 
 
 Egino fled from his mind into his heart, in which he loved 
 Corradina. He fled out of a cold, stormy night into a warm circle of 
 light. Even if there was for him no hope to force himself into this 
 circle, and therein be able to hide himself, his soul flowed out
 
 94 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 thitherward with all its emotions ; his whole heart fled toward it ; 
 his eye was fixed upon that alone as his only salvation upon earth ; 
 and in his reckless impulse toward her, all his pride of virtue had 
 been overcome. When Irmgard's advice awakened in him a hope, 
 he felt that in his emotions lay his right. In the struggle for this 
 right, which consecrated every weapon upon which he could seize, 
 he did not think of refusing an armor which served his purpose, al- 
 though this armor was a disguise, a mask, a lie. Love accepts laws 
 only from itself.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IN THE CLOISTER. 
 
 " S/ie walks in beauty like the night." LORD BYRON. 
 
 FEW hours later Egino was, with Irmgard, walking to 
 and fro upon the quiet, open space before the church of 
 Santa Sabina. He had sent his servant into the interior 
 of the cloister to make known to the prior his wish, and 
 now waited upon the return of faithful Gotz. 
 
 Irmgard carried upon her arm the silver ornament of which she 
 had spoken, wrapped in a white cloth. 
 
 "Will you Visit me in the cloister, Irmgard ?" asked Egino. 
 
 "It will scarcely be allowed you -to receive such visits." 
 
 " Would they recognize you in your costume ? " 
 
 "And if they did not, so " 
 
 " I would not like to be whole weeks without hearing from you 
 from you and your poor Uncle. Let me take you with me there now 
 into the cloister, as my trusted servant to carry this silver jewel ; 
 thus you might, indeed, receive the permission, at one time or 
 another, to look after me here. Will you ? " 
 
 " To what purpose would it serve you, sir ? You have your faith- 
 ful servant, whom you will need to keep with you." 
 
 " What is the servant to me ? Can I talk with him as with you ? 
 And if I should fall into dangers or helplessness, where I should 
 need counsel I have just seen how quickly your clever brain finds 
 out an advice." 
 
 "Well, then, if you really place much stress upon it, I will now 
 go with you and show myself in the cloister, in order that they may 
 admit me to you later." 
 
 " Do it, do it, Irmgard ; it is to me almost as if I had found a 
 sister in you." 
 
 " In me, the poor bell-founder's child ? You, the princely lord ? " 
 
 " I do not think my princeliness alters it much," said Egino. " At 
 
 95
 
 96 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 home it may dazzle the tenants of my brother ; what is it here 
 here in Rome ? Therefore it will not even make you proud if I say 
 It to you, you poor bell-founder's child, as you call yourself if I say 
 to you, I feel it is so. It seems to me as if you belong to my life ; as 
 if you are no friend, but it lies as if in our destiny that our life-paths 
 should cross each other, and then we should go along near to each 
 other, rich in help one for the other in this strange land." 
 
 " And still you let yourself go a long while, sir," said Irmgard, 
 coolly, "without being led by this feeling to see what had become of 
 us ; and only to-day, when I serve your passion, this knowledge 
 comes to you." 
 
 " You are right, Irmgard ; but what will you have ? " responded 
 Egino, unabashed. " Is it not customary that much which lies in 
 us first becomes known, when an emergency, an outward impulse, 
 comes and draws it out." 
 
 Egino's servant at this moment stepped forward out of the clois- 
 ter door ; a monk in a white habit was with him. He had permis- 
 sion to conduct Egino to the prior. 
 
 Egino and Irmgard followed the monk into the interior of the 
 cloister. Gotz walked after them, a knapsack with articles for his 
 master under his arm. 
 
 A broad, dark passage received them ; when they passed farther 
 in, it grew lighter, and opened on the left side with light, graceful 
 arches upon a beautiful, though small, cloister court, around which a 
 vaulted pathway ran. A fountain played within ; the jet of water 
 seemed to exert itself to spring so high that it might ascend to the 
 region of the sunlight falling down over the roofs, which sparkled 
 and flashed in its upper part. Some oleanders and orange trees 
 stood motionless near by. There prevailed a wonderful quiet and 
 stillness in the little court. At the end of the walk was a doorway 
 closed by a curtain, which the monk lifted in order to let Egino and 
 his companions enter. At a long table in the background of the 
 lofty and vaulted chamber into which they came sat three monks, 
 likewise in white habits ; the black scapularies which belonged to 
 their complete costume they had thrown aside, on account of the 
 warm day. One could scarcely have distinguished their costume 
 from that of Brother Martin, except the latter fastened his habit 
 with a leathern girdle, the only token of the rise of his order from 
 a poor anchorite. 
 
 Between the monks lay books and manuscripts pushed together in
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 97 
 
 a heap ; the brothers appeared gay, and as if they had been chatting 
 about things quite different from those contained in their books. 
 One of them, a stately man, with a round, benevolent face, about 
 whose shorn pate lay a wreath of blonde-gray hair, now arose and 
 came slowly forward to meet Egino. 
 
 "Let Jesus Christ be praised!" he said. "You are a German 
 count, and desire to be allowed to bring here an offering to the 
 holy Dominicus for the salvation of your soul ? " 
 
 " It is even so, worthy father ; and, moreover, it is further my 
 desire to be received for some weeks into your cloister, and there- 
 in be allowed to perform spiritual devotions." 
 
 " Well, well, these are praiseworthy motives which lead you to us. 
 We hope your devotions will be as pleasing to the beloved God, 
 as your offering to the holy Dominicus. In what does it consist ? " 
 
 Egino beckoned to Irmgard ; she drew back the cloth from her 
 light burden, laid it upon the table, and opened the two wings which 
 covered the middle piece of the little altar-ornament. 
 
 "Ecco, ecco, e cosa bellissima, cosa rara!" exclaimed the blonde- 
 gray, the prior, while the other monks crowded around to examine 
 this antique work of art. 
 
 "San Dominico e la Madonna! e fatto molto bene!" said one 
 while 'another took up the whole thing, and balancing it in his 
 hand exclaimed : 
 
 " It is worth about fifty scudi ! " 
 
 They appeared to rejoice over Egino's present as children over 
 a plaything. The prior began to explain the figures ; and when 
 that was done, he ordered the brother who had conducted Egino, 
 to take it to the father vicar-general of the order, that he might 
 see it. 
 
 At all this Egino felt the anxiety with which he had presented his 
 request disappear. He saw, indeed, how susceptible these good sons 
 of the holy Dominicus showed themselves to have introduced in this 
 way a contract with them, and so he brought forward with so much 
 the less embarrassment his request to become so quartered in the 
 cloister that he could go at all times of the day into the garden, and 
 could keep his servant Gotz with him. 
 
 "You do not need your servant," replied the prior, "for you will 
 have one of our brethren at your service. Your additional wish, how- 
 ever, to be allowed to entertain yourself every hour in our garden, 
 has nothing in its way. Our garden stands always open to the occu-
 
 98 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 pants of our cloister; and if you are so great a friend to walking for 
 pleasure in the fresh air, Father Eustachius, the exercise-master 
 (Where is Father Eustachius? Let some one call him), may show 
 you to a cell which opens out to the garden and out of whose win- 
 dows, furthermore, you can see far over San Michael's to the Janic- 
 ulum." 
 
 " And will it be allowed, while I am here, that from time to time 
 this trusted servant" Egino pointed to Irmgard "may come 
 to me to bring news, if letters or messages arrive for me from 
 home ? " 
 
 "While you are here in the walls of this cloister, you must forget 
 the world and what takes place in it," interposed the prior. " Of 
 what use would the spiritual exercises be to you if they did not 
 overcome the world that is in you? " 
 
 "You are right, worthy father; but I am here in Rome for the 
 sake of important business of our house, which I have to carry on 
 with the Rota and with influential men ; and hence it might become 
 necessary to receive and return communications." 
 
 " So, so ; well, then, let it be as you wish. The porter may admit 
 to you your page, there, when he presents himself. Your knapsack 
 your servant may lay there on the floor ; some one will take it to 
 your cell. And there is the father exercise-master, in whose guard- 
 ianship I place you so long as you tarry among us poor sons of the 
 Saint, in order to atone for your sins, and through penitence, prayer, 
 meditation, and the holy sacraments, to purify the garments of your 
 soul from earthly dust." 
 
 The exercise-master, who now entered, was a meager man with a 
 yellow face, deep-set, coal-black eyes, and a wreath of hair no less 
 black. With his deep-cut features, his high-peaked crown, his down- 
 cast, and, from time to time, suddenly and sharply uplifted glance, he 
 made upon Egino a disagreeable impression. For the kind of soul- 
 washing he pretended to desire, the florid, open-faced prior, descend- 
 ant of some northern land, would have been to him as a bath-master 
 preferable to the emaciated southerner ; but he guarded himself from 
 uttering this wish, and bowed respectfully before the man, approach- 
 ing him with noiseless and measured step, and above whom he 
 towered at least a head. 
 
 The exercise-master reviewed the foreign company, his glance re- 
 maining fixed longest and most sharply upon Irmgard, and then 
 looked speechless and inquiring at the prior.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 99 
 
 " Our German guest is a friend of fresh air," said the latter ; "let 
 there be given to him the cell by the garden, which was formerly 
 occupied by the Marchese del Monte. You" he turned then to 
 Egino's servant "lay your master's baggage down, now ; some one 
 will take it immediately to the cell." 
 
 "Then good-bye ! " said Egino, while he reached Irmgardhis hand, 
 and dismissed his servant with a nod of the head. Then he turned 
 to the exercise-master, who still stood unmoved, and followed with 
 keen glance Egino's retreating companions. 
 
 " Come ! " said Father Eustachius, finally, after the curtain of the 
 door had fallen behind the last one. 
 
 With a "Blessed be Jesus Christ!" the prior now dismissed his 
 guest, and Egino followed Father Eustachius, who led him again 
 through the same door into the corridor. 
 
 Having arrived at the archway, Father Eustachius turned to the 
 right ; soon after he remained standing before a closed door, and 
 murmured softly the words : 
 
 "Wait here." 
 
 He stepped away from Egino, walking slowly down the archway, 
 then back again no less slowly, as if by walking to and fro to pass 
 away the time of waiting. 
 
 " Father Eustachius seems to be a man of no immoderate impulse 
 to speak," thought Egino. " That is always a good thing; he will 
 indeed let me have quiet to think of other things besides his saints 
 and their castigations." 
 
 A lay brother came with the keys. The cell was opened and 
 Egino saw himself conducted into a room tolerably spacious for a 
 cloister-cell, and already sufficiently well arranged to leave nothing 
 else to be desired except a little more order and cleanliness. 
 
 Father Eustachius had disappeared the instant that Egino 
 entered his cell. The latter saw himself suddenly alone with the 
 serving brother. 
 
 "Where is the exercise-master?" he asked, a little astonished. 
 "The man appears to be as sparing of his person as of his words." 
 
 " He will be back immediately, sir," responded the lay brother, 
 "as soon as you shall first have settled yourself a little. What 
 orders have you for me ? " 
 
 "That you bring hither my things which my servant carried, and 
 then bring more order into this room." 
 
 The brother went.
 
 ioo LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Egino went to the window of the cell and opened it. The prospect 
 which it presented to him was of most captivating beauty. Above 
 the garden lying beneath, towered, on the left, the lofty structure of 
 the church of Santa Sabina ; and above the wall surrounding the 
 garden he saw a good bit of the Eternal City before him, and beyond 
 the Janiculum even as far as the Vatican. Farther to the right was 
 the Castle of St. Angelo ; the Capitol, however, was hidden by the 
 towers of the Savelli Castle. From the surroundings of this castle 
 the cloister garden was shut off by a wall, along which, on the inside, 
 stood a row of cypresses. Upon their dark green lay, in wonderful 
 golden sheen, the splendor of the now fast-declining sun. 
 
 The lay brother returned, bringing with him the knapsack con- 
 taining Egino's effects. 
 
 Then he began to put things in order. 
 
 " Saint Dominicus," said Egino, turning from the window toward 
 the brother, "dwells here very close to the castle of the Savelli. 
 Do the saint and the lords of the castle maintain good neighborly 
 relations ? " 
 
 "Why should they not ? " responded the monk, looking up. " San 
 Dominico is a great sanctifier of all that belongs to this house. 
 You must know that more than three hundred years ago Pope 
 Honorius III., who was a Savelli, and resided near us in the castle, 
 erected to the saint this cloister among his own habitations, and, 
 therefore, you see the towers and walls standing so close around. 
 They protect San Dominico's poor sons ; it is all as if one building. 
 The Savelli have their way through our cloister when they wish to 
 go into the church." 
 
 "Into the church of Santa Sabina?" 
 
 "Yes, sir ; into our church. And they also have their own oratory 
 in our church, and on the great feast days like Easter and " 
 
 " And the occupants of the castle walk through your cloister into 
 the church ? " interposed Egino, aroused. 
 
 " Yes, sir ; the male occupants. The female occupants, you know, 
 are of course not allowed to walk through the cloister ! " 
 
 " But the female occupants ? " 
 
 " What did you ask, sir, about them ? " 
 
 " How do they get into the church ? " 
 
 "They? Well, like other people; outside over the way of all 
 that is, such as belong to the servants ; the ladies are allowed to go 
 through the garden under this window. A little door leads from our
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 101 
 
 garden into the church, but none of the domestics are allowed 
 it " 
 
 " So will I see the ladies of the Savelli family pass by under my 
 window ? " interrogated Egino, in a tone as indifferent as possible. 
 
 " You will not see many of them, sir ; only the widow of the poor 
 Lord Luca, who recently, so soon after he had been married, had to 
 die. The others dwell beyond at Montanara, on Monte Savello." 
 
 Egino's heart beat so violently at the words of the monk, which 
 opened to him the prospect of hourly seeing Corradina, that he 
 feared to betray his emotion should he utter another syllable more. 
 He turned again silently to the window, while the lay brother con- 
 tinued to move and dust the furniture, and to put in order the couch 
 in the corner. ' 
 
 When the monk went out, Egino followed him. " Will you show 
 me the way into the garden, brother ? What is your name ? " 
 
 "Alessio." 
 
 "Then, Brother Alessio, show me where you go out into the gar- 
 den," said Egino. 
 
 "You must await here the father exercise-master, sir," said the 
 monk. 
 
 " Must I ? He has not announced to me his visit. Still, let it 
 be so." 
 
 Egino returned to his cell, and standing at the window awaited 
 the father exercise-master. 
 
 Father Eustachius, however, did not appear. Egino was in the 
 act of leaving his cell, to seek for himself the way into the garden, 
 when the bell rang, and Brother Alessio entered to call him to the 
 supper of the monks. Egino followed him with firm, confident step 
 through the passages which led to the refectory. He was peculiarly, 
 but joyously and courageously, excited by the venture which gave 
 such excellent promise of success. If he had met Irmgard in these 
 passages, he would have embraced his clever page out of gratitude 
 for her good counsel. 
 
 In the long dining-hall of the monks his place was assigned him 
 near the prior. Egino had ample leisure to observe this company of 
 fifty or sixty white-robed men, who sat down the long room in two 
 rows to partake of their frugal evening repast of mingled wine, bread, 
 cheese, and fruits ; for they all sat silent, while upon a little platform 
 in the centre of, the refectory sat the father reader, and out of a thick 
 Latin book read to them a long legend about a pious painter whom
 
 102 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 a miracle saved from certain death. The old monk read it with 
 credulous fervor. The painter had all his lifetime been an especial 
 worshiper of the spotless virgin. Hence he painted with holy zeal, 
 as he had been commissioned to do by the brotherhood of his clois- 
 ter, in a church, high up on the wall, the Madonna standing upon 
 the globe of the earth and the crescent moon with her head encirled 
 with stars "the Immaculata." The evil fiend became exasperated 
 over this, full of indignation and rage, for he had already a long time 
 sought to destroy the pious painter ; and now he seized this excellent 
 opportunity, and cunningly sawed through the props of the scaffold 
 upon which the painter, wholly absorbed in his work, was laboring. 
 The scaffold tottered, broke down ; the boards suddenly gave way 
 under the feet of the unfortunate painter. But see ! the Madonna 
 painted by him opens her arms, embraces her pious worshiper, 
 presses him to her soft, pitying breast till some one, summoned by 
 the noise of the broken scaffold, comes, and with ladders takes him 
 down from where he was hanging to the wall above, out of the arms 
 of the protecting Mother of Heaven. 
 
 The Dominican order in the beginning of the sixteenth century 
 represented the learning of the church ; it was the fountain, the 
 guardian, of scholastic science, through which the evolution of 
 dogmas had been carried on ; it maintained the chair of literature at 
 the academies; it occupied the courts of justice which rendered 
 decisions over the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of opinions and of sys- 
 tems, and directed the consciences. 
 
 And the men of this order listened with devotion to such tales ! 
 
 Could anything be more significant ? Could anything be more 
 terrible than that the consciences of men should be subjected to the 
 verdict, to the control of men who had been brought up with such 
 views, in such a spiritual atmosphere, and who remained therein to 
 the end of their days ? 
 
 With devotion, we said just now. But no; they did not all listen 
 with devotion. Upon the physiognomies of the most diverse kind, 
 young and old, with the type of the South and that of the North ; 
 upon the now broad and comfortable, now deep-cut, marked, emacia- 
 ted faces, lay the expression of most diverse inner occupation of 
 thought, or yet of utter want of thought. While to what was 
 presented some held their ear closed, evidently only from stupid 
 indifference, being busied only with the bites they swallowed and 
 the contents of the mug they emptied, there were others evidently
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 103 
 
 lost in meditation, and with their thoughts widely remote from this 
 place. Some, again, looked with inquiring or hostile glances furtively 
 and clandestinely upon their neighbors. 
 
 Egino listened carelessly to the legend of the pater lector. The 
 Italian accent with which the man brought forth and Italianized his 
 Latin, had something in it which forced him to a smile ; the story it- 
 self, however, called forth in him a kind of indignant haughtiness 
 toward this whole world. It did the last, in order to take to him 
 the feeling of anxiety and a certain sadness with which he had 
 crossed the threshold of the cloister. 
 
 In the monk who sat opposite him, on the other side of the table, 
 he recognized the one whom he had seen in the house-chapel of the 
 Savelli ; who had wedded Corradina to the dead Luca^ Savelli. 
 
 While he was observing him, he did not perceive how sharply and 
 searchingly the eye of Father Eustachius lay upon him, as he sat 
 farther down on the other side of the table. 
 
 When the prior had arisen, and after the youngest of the company, 
 at the lower end of the table, had pronounced the benediction, 
 Father Eustachius approached Egino. 
 
 "You will see me appear before you in the morning, sir," he said, 
 while over his gloomy face he allowed to glide a smile, which he 
 meant to be friendly. " I think you will know how to thank me that 
 I let you alone this evening ; you are a child of the world, and when 
 such an one enters into a circle so strange as ours is to him, there 
 crowd upon him, indeed, many impressions. One must let him have 
 time to overcome these, to collect himself, before requiring of him 
 absorption in holy thoughts. Only perfectly smooth water is able to 
 mirror the blue of heaven." 
 
 " Still, the Master passed over the Sea of Gennesaret when it was 
 swelling with the storm," answered Egino. " But I will not contra- 
 dict you, worthy sir, and thank you for your considerateness." 
 
 Father Eustachius did not reply. He seemed, after having spoken 
 his words, to wish to lay aside all discussion of them, and silently 
 nodding his head went out. 
 
 Egino left the refectory, and as he fell upon his lay brother out- 
 side, he repeated his request to be conducted into the cloister garden. 
 
 The cloister garden consisted of a terrace running along the side 
 of the building in which was found Egino's cell, and another deeper- 
 lying portion, which was inclosed by several walks hedged with ever- 
 green plants, laurels, box and yew, and crossing each other at right
 
 104 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 angles. Behind these hedges, upon the little inclosed squares, grew 
 nothing but a thirsty turf, which the want of sun and air had stunted. 
 These garden-beds were there only for the sake of the garden-paths ;. 
 they lay thus dry and barren, like many a human life which spun it- 
 self away in this cloister. Above, however, the terrace was planted 
 with a row of old orange trees, upon which hung an abundance of 
 fruit, already beginning, here and there, ^to become golden. 
 
 In the shadows of the. cloister wall at the left, and of .the row of 
 orange trees at the right, must Corradina walk when she betook 
 herself to the Church of Santa Sabina. On the north end of the ter- 
 race there was to be found, in a niche of the wall, a little door of 
 iron-clasped boards with sharp, vaulted arch, which evidently led into 
 the garden or hinder court of the Savelli Castle. At the south end 
 of the terrace, above some steps, appeared a similar, but less-care- 
 fully guarded door, which was even only on the latch, and which led 
 into the interior of the church. 
 
 " The life-path of Corradina runs through shadows," said Egino to 
 himself, a little low-spirited and depressed, when he had explored the 
 nature of the locality. " Shall I ever succeed in forcing myself to 
 her out of all these walls, and in winning her to light and life ? Will 
 that iron-clasped door ever open itself for me, or shall I ever be able 
 to climb over this wall running under the cypress row, and separa- 
 ting the region of the cloister from that of the neighboring castle ? " 
 
 The wall was everywhere very steep, very high. The baron and 
 the monk had found themselves very near together ; the saints and 
 the knights had built very close together, and shared in the same 
 soil ; and still they had found it for their good to erect a strong and 
 lofty wall between them. 
 
 Egino went along this wall. Since the garden was entirely clear 
 of men, for the monks betook themselves after their evening meal 
 immediately to rest, that they might be able in the night to apply 
 themselves to their choral service, he could carry on his investiga- 
 tions undisturbed. The wall was everywhere preserved in good con- 
 dition ; it presented nowhere a hole, a projection, or any assistance 
 for a man who might have the wish to be able, in case of necessity, 
 to scale the wall. 
 
 In a smooth right-angle it joined on to the powerful, battlement- 
 finished and tower-defended wall which crowned the rock-wall of the 
 Aventine, falling precipitously hence to the Marmorata, and protect-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 105 
 
 ing on this side as well the grounds of the castle as those of the 
 cloister. 
 
 On this corner stood no tree upon which to ascend. One would 
 be obliged to have wings. 
 
 Rather discouraged, Egino went from the wall back to the middle 
 of the garden, where, in the intersection of the two chief walks, 
 stood a great antique basin, borne upon a no less antique Corinthian 
 capital of weather-beaten white marble. He seated himself upon the 
 rim of this basin ; folding his arms, he gazed upon the heavy, mass- 
 ive walls of the castle. 
 
 The latter presented to him upon this side two portions of the 
 building, an older one with small, unevenly disposed windows, and 
 a higher, newer portion with symmetrical rows of windows. Both 
 parts were flanked with quadrangular towers, and in the middle, 
 where they were united, was placed a semi-circular, stair-cased 
 tower. The newer part of the building, which was more distant 
 from Egino's standpoint, had high up, running along a row of win- 
 dows, a balcony lying, perhaps, above an arcade, which the wall 
 separating the garden of the cloister from that of the castle hid from 
 view. The shutters of one of the window-openings leading upon this 
 balcony stood open ; a gleam of light just now kindled forced itself 
 through this opening into the darkening night, and illuminated a 
 portion of the balcony with its feeble glow. 
 
 When Egino had stared at this awhile, there occurred what he, in 
 palpitating suspense, had been longing for, expecting, and had al- 
 ready forseen as if in a dream. 
 
 A female form clad in dark robes stepped upon the sill of the win- 
 dow ; looked a moment upon the evening dusk, which might already 
 be called night a moment, but long enough for Egino to recognize, 
 or, better (for positive recognition it was much too far away, much to 
 dark), for him through a sixth sense to feel, what he, rising and 
 pressing his hand upon his wildly beating heart, whispered : 
 
 "It is she!" 
 
 She stepped out upon the balcony, and began to move slowly up 
 and down. 
 
 Egino's soul was in his eyes ; as if it had been possible that his 
 breathing could betray him, he suppressed it, while he sharpened his 
 glance to perceive every movement of this dark form, which, as a 
 ghost of the night, moving back and forth high above, swayed along 
 the gloomy stronghold of the Savelli.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE EXERCISE-MASTER. 
 
 GINO may have sat thus a good while upon the old foun- 
 tain-basin and stared through the darkness, when he 
 heard a noise behind him. He turned suddenly around, 
 and saw a white monkish form arise bright from the dark, 
 neighboring hedge ; it now came nearer him, and the voice which 
 addressed Egino was that of Father Eustachius. 
 
 Was it not strange that the silent father was not where all the 
 other monks were at this hour ? Did he absent himself from sleep 
 merely to watch- over those placed in his spiritual care ? 
 
 So it almost appeared. 
 
 "You are meditating, young sir?" he asked, in a dry, sharp 
 voice. 
 
 Egino, with his whole soul, wished him a thousand miles away, 
 but he could not do otherwise than turn himself away from the 
 object which had held him enchained, and forcing himself to an un- 
 embarrassed answer, he said : 
 
 " I take pleasure in the mild, soft night air ; in the deep, dark 
 vault of heaven, with its clear lights ; and in the refreshing fragrance 
 extracted by the falling dew from the laurel hedge." 
 
 "And that," responded Father Eustachius, turning while he 
 spoke, and thus forcing Egino to follow him down the walk, "that dis- 
 poses the soul to earnestness, and may be a good preparation for the 
 work which you will begin here to-morrow." 
 
 " So it is," rejoined Egino, who thought so little about this work 
 and took it so lightly, and now said to himself, with some anxiety, 
 that this Father Eustachius might be just the man to make it very 
 difficult for him. 
 
 " You have given yourself up to your exercises in our cloister, 
 Count Egino," continued the monk, "with fixed grounds which 
 caused you to prefer it to any other cloister ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 107 
 
 " Certainly, certainly ; I had the most definite grounds." 
 
 "That speaks for the keenness of your judgment, and for the full 
 earnestness with which you are striving for the salvation of your 
 soul, for the deep earnestness of your intentions," said Eustachius. 
 "For you know the spirit which prevails among the sons of 
 Dominicus is as earnest as the grave. The other orders have well 
 comprehended that humanity wanders in darkness, and must wander 
 painfully till the coming day. They assist the wanderers and lead 
 them. Ours, however, has received it as their special gift to seek 
 out in the night those wandering in their darkness, and lead them 
 back to the right way ; friendly and gentle toward those who follow, 
 severe and inexorable toward those who obstinately call the path of 
 error the right road and this office is an earnest .one." 
 
 "As every penal office must be!" 
 
 " As every penal office, yes, where mildness becomes sin, and kind- 
 ness remissness of duty." 
 
 "And no one will reproach the sons of Guzman with such sin and 
 remissness of duty," Egino could not refrain from saying, with a 
 sharp tone of reproof. 
 
 "No," responded Father Eustachius, overhearing the irony of this 
 remark; "whoever knows the history of our order will not. Every 
 association, even the Christian, needs sacrificing men, whose self- 
 denial goes so far that they eradicate from themselves one of the 
 most deeply rooted feelings of unregenerated human nature, com- 
 passion for and sympathy with the contemporary creature, and put 
 in its place in the heart a thought unyielding and inexorable, the 
 thought of the law that mankind should walk toward God upon the 
 one tvay, and that sword and fire should punish them if they wan- 
 der from this way." 
 
 " And the sons of Saint Dominicus are evidently now the bearers 
 of the sword and fire ! " 
 
 "So it is," said the monk; "that is our calling; therefore is our 
 order established as the 'Militia Jesu Christi contra Hcsreticos? To 
 it the. Inquisition is intrusted, and its judicial authority stretches out 
 over the world over the high and the low, over the lay brother and 
 the bishop, over the bondman and the prince " 
 
 "I know," interposed Egino, fast becoming wrought up; "and the 
 order has gloriously justified the confidence placed in it by the 
 church, in handing over to it the office of judging the conscience. It 
 has had chains, dungeons, woodpiles, and tortures of all kinds for
 
 1 08 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 the erring; and in the great Albigensian wars, has been obliged to 
 exterminate tenfold more of the unfortunate than there were even 
 of the Christian martyrs slain by the followers of the heathen emper- 
 ors. One might almost come upon the thought whether to the gen- 
 tle, love-preaching Christ such a worship, with more human sacrifices 
 than all the heathen themselves have slaughtered, could then be well 
 pleasing. But the church teaches it, and the church must know 
 it " 
 
 Father Eustachius nodded the head. 
 
 " So it is," said he, dryly; "we have had to bring into use various 
 implements of punishment for the stiffnecked and obdurate; and to 
 the fact that we did it, many peoples, the Spanish, the French, above 
 all, also, the Italians, owe the high enjoyment of their faith. You 
 know our order. You know it, you say. You chose it with fore- 
 thought " 
 
 "So I did." 
 
 "And you will remain true to your decision ?" 
 
 " Certainly ; why shouldn't I ? " 
 
 Father Eustachius did not answer ; he walked in silence by Egino. 
 Then, as if arousing himself from thought, he said : 
 
 " Will you still remain in the garden ? I advise you not ; the air 
 here on the Aventine at night, or even in the day, is not very salu- 
 brious; therefore you will do well to be careful of yourself, Count 
 Egino. Will you still remain ? " 
 
 They were at the end of the walk, and had reached the flight of 
 steps leading up to the higher-lying terrace. The monk spoke his 
 last words with a peculiar intonation, while he placed his foot upon 
 the steps. 
 
 " I should like to remain awhile longer in the garden before I be- 
 take myself to rest, worthy Father," Egino answered, quietly. 
 
 "Then good-night, Count Egino. When I see you to-morrow, I 
 will speak with you about the general confession you have to make 
 to me. Blessed be Jesus Christ ! " 
 
 Father Eustachius went up over the steps, diagonally over the 
 terrace, and disappeared in the cloister. 
 
 Egino looked after him a little wonderingly. What had the monk 
 wished ? Had he been spying out his steps, or had he really wished 
 to warn him, to threaten him ? Was there not in his speech some- 
 thing like a hint not to jest with his order, as solemn as the grave ? 
 Had he upon Egino's brow read his thoughts, and discovered that
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 109 
 
 very many among them were such that Father Eustachius, out of 
 human interest in him, did not wish by the opportunity of a general 
 confession to need to enter into an explanation with him ? 
 
 Had he really penetrated his intention ? 
 
 No ; that was not possible ! 
 
 And in regard to the other matter Egino did not trouble himself 
 much. He hastened back to his former position, to the stone basin. 
 The form, however, upon the balcony of the Savelli Castle had dis- 
 appeared ; the light was extinguished. 
 
 Early next morning Egino was awakened by Brother Alessio, who 
 said to him that it was time to take part in the early divine service 
 of the monks in the church of Santa Sabina. It was still so early 
 Egino followed the brother rather unwillingly, and had himself shown 
 to a place in the church in one corner of the choir of the monks. 
 
 After the service the early meal was partaken of in the refectory, 
 and, still more frugal than the night meal, it consisted of milk and 
 bread. Then, when Egino had scarcely returned to his chamber, 
 Father Eustachius appeared. 
 
 Father Eustachius had entered silently, and silently took the chair 
 which Egino carried forth. He gazed awhile at the floor, then sud- 
 denly, sharply fixing upon him his dark, fiery eyes, he said : 
 
 " You know that the exercises begin with a general confession, 
 which has to extend over your whole life, from the moment where, 
 with the knowledge of good and evil, your moral accountability 
 began. You can so arrange the preparation for this confession that 
 you may divide into periods the life lying behind you, and seek to 
 give yourself an account of your actions in each single instance ; or 
 you may fix your whole life at once in the eye, and seek to bring 
 yourself to a knowledge of what runs through it, as the principal 
 trait of weakness or sinfulness, and is the common cause of the 
 single instances wherein you have sinned. If you choose the first, I 
 will trouble myself out of the individual instances to lead you to a 
 knowledge of the prevailing weakness of character which rules you ; 
 if you choose the other, it will be my task from the ground-failure 
 to proceed to the separate facts, which are like the separate waves 
 pouring themselves out of the fountain of your weakness." 
 
 " And how do most persons proceed ? " said Egino, hesitating, and 
 struggling against entering upon a theme that at this moment lay 
 so far from him, and from which, with a Father Eustachius, at least 
 there was no escape.
 
 i io LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 
 
 "The most persons? Most men esteem themselves gold, upon 
 which lie only a few spots of rust, to be washed away from them by 
 the holy water of the church. They consider themselves the victims 
 of temptation approaching them from without. They think their 
 fall is due to the stone upon their way, over which want of fore- 
 thought causes them to stumble. And still they are not gold, but 
 dross through and through. And still temptation does not approach 
 them from without, but the vice in them leads them into the tempta- 
 tion ; and still the road is not to blame that they fall, but the weak- 
 ness of the feet upon which their virtue stands. So most of them 
 complain of the separate instance, and it is the task of the spiritual 
 father to show them that the individual sin is without significance ; 
 that the worst robbery, murder, treachery, can be pardoned by the 
 mercy of God, but not the foulness of soul rankling in them. Men 
 are all endowed with capacities, as plants with boughs, branches, and 
 leaves. But only in a part of the top which such a human tree car- 
 ries, living juice pours itself and life pulses ; another part stands 
 arid, dried up, leafless, juiceless. The branch of courage, of will- 
 power, the branch of unselfishness, in one stands green and full of 
 foliage ; but the branch of chastity, the branch of fidelity, the branch 
 of goodness of heart and of humility, stands dry and dead. With an- 
 other the branches of kindness, of brotherly love, of gentleness, are 
 green ; but the branches of self-control, of faith-power, of devotion, 
 stand dry. Now, the father confessor must be the gardener of the 
 human plant, and he has to bring even into the dry branches life. 
 Still, say how you will proceed." 
 
 " So let us look after my dry branches at once, worthy Father," 
 answered Egino, smiling, for in him the deep earnestness with which 
 the gloomy Spanish monk spoke began to inspire a certain confidence. 
 
 "Not at once," interposed Father Eustachius; "you need time in 
 order to collect yourself, to enter within yourself, and to make clear 
 to yourself what branches in you are dry. And when you reflect 
 upon it, do not let one escape you ; that is, on the human plant the 
 branches mostly grow in pairs, grown upon one bough, standing 
 together. And when you find one of these twin branches dry in you, 
 then ask yourself whether at least the other is green. If your good- 
 ness is dry, so, at least, must your justice be green ; if your faith is 
 dry, your love, at least, must be green ; and if your self-restraint and 
 chastity are dry, your mildness and brotherly love, at least, must be ' 
 green. Thoroughly bad natures are those in which both twin
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. in 
 
 branches are dead ; and entirely miserable are those natures which 
 have nothing of the virtues of their faults and nothing of the faults 
 of their virtues. The weakness which is not good, but evil ; the 
 cruelty which is not courageous and strong willed, but cowardly ; 
 the rudeness which is not honorable, but a deceiver; the haughtiness 
 and imperiousness which are not generous, but a miser, such are 
 the wholly bad ! Such is the dry wood with which Satan makes his 
 hell hot. Hell is not there on their account, that would be too much 
 honor for them ; but they are there to serve as logs for the nourish- 
 ment of the eternal fire." 
 
 " And for whom is the eternal fire ? " 
 
 " For the ungodly who commit great transgressions, and scorn the 
 means of the church to receive pardon again." 
 
 Over Egino's face flitted a proud smile. 
 
 " We are all the children of God, worthy Father," said he, with a 
 bitter, ironical tone. "And since we need continual guardianship,. 
 God has delivered us over to his church as our careful foster-mother,, 
 who takes- upon herself our everlasting pupilage. Is that so, worthy 
 Father ? " 
 
 "That is so." 
 
 "Well, then, ' Sunt pueri, pneripuerilia tractant.' How is it to be 
 explained that God could conceive the horrible thought of making 
 an eternal, endless punishment in hell, lasting through eternity, for 
 something that his children, in their stupid, childish ignorance, have 
 committed ? If we were not children, it would, indeed, be otherwise.. 
 Had God treated us with the confidence that the father has in his 
 grown-up, mature, reasonable son ; had he opened our eyes to his 
 design in this endless universe ; had he communicated to us openly 
 the mysteries of the world, and disclosed to us the secrets of his 
 being which tormentingly surround us, iastead of hiding everything 
 from us as children and leaving us in the dark, then would he be 
 right to require of us so strenuously that we now behave ourselves 
 as reflecting men, and, through our actions, not disturb the harmony 
 of the moral order of the world. Since, however, he treats us as 
 children under age, how can he wonder if we for our actions, as 
 minors, refuse accountability, and find the eternal hell-punishment 
 very unjust and quite horribly cruel ?" 
 
 " How can you talk so, since God in revelation has disclosed all 
 his mysteries ? " exclaimed the monk. " Are those the thoughts 
 with which you have prepared yourself for your confession ? "
 
 ii2 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Your speech awakened these thoughts. If it is sinful, make me 
 see it." 
 
 The features of the monk grew dark. "I will do it," he said. 
 "Previously, however, answer me a question in case you are pre- 
 pared to answer it at once," he added, with sharp, almost disdainfully 
 ringing tone, at the same time rising and going to close the open 
 window. Then he further spoke : 
 
 " This is the question : Why have you come into this cloister, 
 Count Egino ? " 
 
 " Does it require a preparation to answer this question ? " 
 
 " It seems so, since you do not know how to answer it, because 
 you have learned it is a deadly sin to lie in confession." 
 
 " I do not lie, either in or out of confession," said Egino, proudly. 
 
 "Then answer the truth." 
 
 "That I came you will at least maintain it was yet no sin, 
 and there need be nothing said about it in my confession." 
 
 " And suppose I say to you, Count Egino, that your coming was 
 a sin." 
 
 " So I deny it " 
 
 " Do not deny it; you alter nothing thereby. You did not come 
 for the sake of our exercises ! They are a pretext. There is an- 
 other aim which leads you here, an aim which you pursue obsti- 
 nately, for I find you here in spite of the warnings which I presented 
 to you yesterday, and which you must have understood. Now 
 speak you are speaking to your father confessor." 
 
 " I have nothing to say to you in regard to it," responded Egino, 
 "but that you err when you see something in my coming which 
 resembles a sin, and therefore belongs to the confessional " 
 
 "And I tell you," interposed Father Eustachius, almost threaten- 
 ingly, "man is sinful through and through, and your every work, 
 your every word, your every thought, belongs to the ear of him 
 who can free you from sin. Therefore speak, to what end you came, 
 and what part in it has the woman whom you led into this cloister 
 that disguised woman that you called your page, and who, since she 
 passed over the consecrated threshold of this house of God, this 
 cloister, incurred the fullness of eternal punishment ? " 
 
 "You have a sharp eye, Father Eustachius," replied Egino, in 
 surprise. 
 
 " I have ; and this sharp eye has rested upon you more attentively 
 than you were aware."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 113 
 
 " It appears so," said Egino, feeling with angry smart that his 
 plan was upon the point of being miserably thwarted, and that 
 this interview must end for him in an ignominious expulsion 
 from the cloister. And against such a disgrace, against the 
 abandonment of the hope with which he had come, all that was 
 in him rebelled. All his daring became aroused. 
 
 Should he fear this monk ? Why should he ? Had not they even, 
 in the end, to fear him ? He proudly threw back his head, and, 
 suddenly composed, said with firm and resolute voice : 
 
 "Well then, since I see no one can escape you, I will answer your 
 question as to what impelled me to come to the sons of the holy 
 Dominicus. Understand, then, there lies upon me a sin, and it is 
 such that I, in my worldly surroundings, might repent and atone 
 for a long time." 
 
 "And this sin, for whose repentence you need a disguised 
 maiden what is it?" 
 
 "The disguised maiden is more harmless than you think, Father 
 Eustachius but we will leave her out of the game. She shall not 
 appear again, since you live in the remarkable belief that if a female 
 being, let her be so innocent as St. Peter's daughter, Petronella, and 
 so pious as St. Augustine's mother, Monica, steps over your thresh- 
 old, her pure breath renders foul the atmosphere of your musty 
 cloister passages. My sin is the following. We Counts of Orten- 
 burg are three, or there were three of us : my eldest brother, 
 Bruno, the lord and heir; my second brother, Udo; and myself, the 
 youngest, like Udo, on account of being a younger son, shut out 
 from the ancestral heritage. I was set apart to the service of the 
 emperor ; for Udo, provision was to be made by a marriage with 
 a relative, whose guardian was my deceased father, and whose 
 inheritance was adjoining our own. But my brother Udo was a 
 wild, rough fellow. Ulrica, the relative, did not love him, and 
 stubbornly refused to give him her hand. For this she was tor- 
 mented by us, vexed and harassed in every way : we held her im- 
 prisoned ; we devised every means to break what we called her 
 obstinacy, for we were determined her rich inheritance should never 
 escape us. Then suddenly fell a decisive blow upon this state of 
 things my brother Udo died. A chronic illness carried him sud- 
 denly away, before we had been able to wed him to Ulrica ; and the 
 estate of the latter, which we had long considered our own, had also 
 in part alienated and used up "
 
 114 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " It must not be allowed to fall into other hands by the marriage 
 of your relative, Ulrica, to another man," broke in the monk, with a 
 scornful pucker about the corners of his mouth, "and, therefore, 
 there remained nothing but to wed the relative by force to the dead, 
 whose death you kept secret. After some days the death was 
 published ; the relative was now your brother Udo's widow ; as his 
 widow she remained in the power of the head of your family ; and 
 you, you Count von Ortenburg, will see who can tear her estate out 
 of your hands ! " 
 
 " By God, so it was ! " exclaimed Egino, astonished at the monk's 
 ready comprehension, but determined to throw him the guantlet 
 completely. " Yes, we forced the woman ; we found a monk, a monk 
 of your order, Father Eustachius, who let himself be bribed, and 
 wedded her to the dead. To atone for my 'part in this outrage, in 
 this deed of violence which cries to Heaven, I come to you. I come 
 also to receive counsel from you, whether I shall expose to the Pope 
 the execrable monk who lent himself to this purpose, or whether I, 
 for sake of the calling of the order, of the monstrous scandal it would 
 give to the world, which from day to day becomes more hostile to 
 you, and without that knows so well how to slander you, must let it 
 alone." 
 
 Father Eustachius had looked daggers at Egino while he was 
 speaking ; upon his sallow face had momentarily flamed out a flush 
 as of white-hot anger, which then again disappeared. Father Eusta- 
 chius evidently possessed remarkable control over himself, for with 
 the most quiet voice he now said : 
 
 " If so unusual an action, and one so hard to comprehend in all its 
 circumstances, disquiets and oppresses you, you indeed did well to 
 come here. I hope you will reach your aim, and that fully quieted 
 in your soul and in your conscience you will leave these walls. In 
 the next place, however, I must say to you, that you need ask no 
 advice of me whether or not you may be bound in conscience to 
 expose that corrupted monk to his superiors ; for since he is, as you 
 assert, of my order, I cannot be impartial in this affair. Another 
 shall advise you in this." 
 
 " Another ? And who ? Do you consider the matter so lightly 
 that still another, a third, may learn of this hideous crime of the 
 brother of your order ? " 
 
 " Hideous crime ! Be not so hasty with your words, Count Egino. 
 The other person who shall advise you knows without telling that of
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 115 
 
 which you speak ; is fully in the secret ; is, indeed, the one most 
 concerned, it is the wedded kinswoman herself." 
 
 " What do you say ? " 
 
 "The widow of the dead she is truly near enough to us ! " 
 
 " It is she and she " 
 
 "She shall advise you. You shall see her, and ask her." 
 
 " I shall see her speak to her ? You will bring that about ? " ex- 
 claimed Egino, with an agitation which would not have escaped 
 Father Eustachius, even if Egino had striven to conceal it much 
 more than he thought he was doing. 
 
 " You will accompany me to her," replied the monk, fixing his 
 eyes upon him sharply, quietly, and for a very long time. 
 
 "And when shall this happen ?" 
 
 "That shall the signora decide. I will send to her to have her 
 consulted, or go to her myself." 
 
 Egino, beside himself with excitement, walked up and down in his 
 cell. Father Eustachius followed him with the little, deep-set eyes 
 in which still something feeble, faint, indicated that he was now busy 
 in thought with something other than the behavior of the young 
 man. 
 
 "What can be settled quietly and peacefully," said he finally, 
 rising, "one should not settle in anger. And this business, for whose 
 sake I see you are here, not as a penitent, but defiantly and for the 
 sake of a quarrel, can, I think, be settled peacefully to your satisfac- 
 tion, to the justification of the poor monk whom you accuse and 
 whom you are ready to prosecute. I wish well, not only to that poor 
 monk, as my order-brother, but also to you, Count Egino, believe 
 me. With this well-wishing I spoke to you yesterday, when I gave 
 you the hint you had better leave our cloister. And with the same 
 good will for you, I take the course of mildness in this affair, how- 
 ever defiantly you have conducted yourself, however imperiously you 
 have acted. I leave you alone till I return to conduct you to the 
 woman, who will counsel you." 
 
 Father Eustachius departed.
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 THE DAUGHTER OF EMPERORS.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CORRADINA. 
 
 c. 5>enumm, 3d) bin au antalu efd)Ied)te. 
 S)u ftmdjft cin grofceS SBovt gefaffeu cuts. 
 
 GOETHE. 
 
 GINO awaited the return of the monk. Whether the time 
 was long or short, he scarcely knew. The time was for 
 him as a whirlpool, a storm, a wild flood, in which he 
 was overwhelmed ; they were moments of fearful agita- 
 tion. Finally the door of the cell again opened, and Father 
 Eustachius stepped upon the threshold. He remained standing, 
 and beckoned with his hands. 
 
 " Follow me, Count Egino," he said. 
 
 Egino snatched his dagger and gloves, then his cap ; he was still 
 carrying them in his hands when he was already outside on the way 
 in the garden. Here Father Eustachius passed over the terrace to 
 the door in the wall which united the cloister-garden with that of the 
 Savelli, lying on the other side. It stood only latched. On the other 
 side presented itself the garden of the castle not very different 
 from that of the monks, not even in size. Pope Honorius seemed to 
 have shared fraternally with his friend Dominicus. Only the terrace 
 was more imposing, more elevated ; it did not run along the whole 
 garden-front of the castle ; it ended at the semi-circular tower, in 
 which a door standing open revealed a stairway leading above. 
 
 Eustachius led his companion over the terrace into this door, up 
 the winding-stair to the first landing ; from this another door led to 
 the great balcony, upon which Egino, on the previous evening, had 
 seen the dark form pacing back and forth. They stepped upon this 
 balcony ; there stood upon it, not far from the window-casement 
 which led into the interior of the chambers, a little table with a foot- 
 stool near it. Upon the table lay a book, with some lady's work 
 upon it ; upon the footstool lay a light cloth ; the occupant of the
 
 120 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 adjoining rooms must have passed a part of the morning there. 
 Coming near the open window, the exercise-master suddenly re- 
 strained his step ; he made a bow full of monkish humility, and 
 pointing to Egino, he said : 
 
 "The young German lord, Madame, to whom I begged you to 
 grant an interview." 
 
 Within the next room, scarcely a step behind the open window- 
 casement, stood the Countess Corradina von Anticoli. 
 
 She threw upon Egino a searching, hasty glance, and without 
 returning his bow, turned and stepped farther back into the interior 
 of the room. 
 
 "Only follow in, and hold your consultation!" said Father 
 Eustachius, with a somewhat disdainful smile. 
 
 Then he turned to the little table, and seated himself upon the 
 footstool behind it. 
 
 The slightly haughty reception and Father Eustachius' mocking 
 smile were for Egino in this moment something almost welcome. 
 They made it easier to him to master his emotion ; he stepped over 
 the threshold with the firm step of a man who is conscious that he 
 comes with a definite purpose. In the middle of the moderately 
 large room, which, with its gold-imprinted leathern tapestry, its fine 
 mats, its artistically cut and ivory-adorned furniture, presented all 
 the comfort and grace of a lady's chamber of the time, he bowed 
 profoundly before the lady, who had now reached the end of the 
 room and disposed herself upon a cushioned seat, and turned upon 
 him clear and full her countenance. 
 
 It was the same wonderful countenance, full of beauty and dignity, 
 which Egino had seen in the soft twilight, and which now, illuminated 
 by the bright light of day, exercised upon him the same, and, if pos- 
 sible, a still higher charm. Her blue eyes under the long blonde 
 lashes looked upon him with the fully self-conscious transparency of 
 a proud woman, and still with an expression of uncertain curiosity, 
 which gave to her the girlishness that would, perhaps, have otherwise 
 been wanting. She had not put on the bandeatt, the cap which 
 she should have worn as a widow ; at least her gold-blonde hair, rich 
 and wavy, parted in the middle, flowed over her shoulders just as 
 Egino had beheld it in the marriage scene ; only a narrow fillet of 
 black velvet with some pearls set on it held it together around the 
 temples. Her slender form was enveloped in a dress of light, black 
 material brocaded with violet velvet.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 121 
 
 "You call yourself Count Egino von Ortenburg ? " began the 
 Countess Corradina von Anticoli, after a pause. 
 
 Egino, who had been devouring her with his looks, almost forgot 
 to answer "Yes," he was so surprised to hear these words addressed 
 to him in German speech. 
 
 " And," she continued, " I recognize you. A short time ago you 
 entered this house as a young jurist, as the law-pupil of Minucci ? " 
 
 Egino assented with a slight bow, still always asking himself 
 whether or not merely in a dream he heard these German sounds 
 from these lips. 
 
 " Into the cloister of our neighbors you have introduced yourself 
 with the statement that you there wish to practice the exercises, 
 to apply yourself to the penal-observances." 
 
 "So it is, noble lady," responded Egino, sighing, clasping with 
 his left hand the hilt of his dagger, while he held his right pressed 
 upon his heart. " I came into this house by the side of a lawyer, 
 who introduced me as his pupil. He named me so, not I ; he had 
 grounds which caused him to wish my company. I thus became a 
 witness to the matrimonial alliance (if it is allowed so to name that 
 which happened) which you entered into. And that which I saw, 
 whose witness I became, left to me neither quiet nor rest in my 
 soul ; so from Signer Minucci's pupil I became a pupil of Father 
 Eustachius, till I now stand before you as a pupil, not prepared be- 
 forehand to utter that which lies upon my heart ; and even if I were, 
 I am still not in condition to speak as I should like to speak in your 
 presence Father Eustachius has brought me here so unexpectedly, 
 so hastily ; I have been placed before you so suddenly, quite as if in 
 a dream " 
 
 "Strange," she said, interrupting him, "that a German prince 
 should appear in the role of a pupil ; strange that he disquiets himself 
 over the actions of a monk, a stranger to him, whose actions he 
 does not understand or comprehend, yet allows so entirely to disturb 
 him that he thinks he must prosecute the matter; and strange, also, 
 that Father Eustachius desires that I should explain this monk's 
 conduct to you " 
 
 "Do not find it strange, noble lady. Father Eustachius seems 
 to be able to read in the souls of men, and may perceive that my 
 soul is so filled by this affair that there is for it no tranquillity except 
 through you. He may have discovered something in my soul with 
 which he knows it is not good to contend, but better to yield to it."
 
 122 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 She looked at him inquiringly, searchingly. 
 
 "To yield ? One yields to children," said Corradina, then proudly 
 throwing back her head. 
 
 " Do I then impress you as a child ? " asked Egino, no less proudly, 
 and lifting himself up to his greatest height. 
 
 " You, indeed, believe you make the impression of a knight, who 
 nobly takes into his care unprotected women and punishes deceit 
 and violence," said she with a tone of jesting, which had in it some- 
 thing mocking, and yet, again, friendly. 
 
 " You may be so accustomed to such things that knights seem to 
 you as children," responded Egino, who therefore took courage to 
 answer in the same tone. 
 
 " That is a more polite answer than was to be expected from a 
 pupil, as you call yourself," she replied with a smile. " I see you are 
 not without shrewdness, and this will say to you that you now hear 
 enough from my own lips in order to become satisfied about that 
 which, as you express it, leaves neither rest nor quiet in your soul. 
 Should this not satisfy you, however, Father Eustachius may explain 
 the rest ; I give to him the permission to do so." 
 
 " It does not lie in the power of an Italian monk to give quiet and 
 rest to my soul,", responded Egino. "You speak German, as I do. 
 You speak to me. Do not send me away after so few words, I beg 
 you. You may know, I have suffered much through that which I 
 experienced, very much in the thought of you. I have a right to a 
 little kindness on your part." 
 
 Corradina looked upon him awhile in silence, not kindly and 
 benevolently, and yet not angrily, but as if with an expression 
 of astonishment. 
 
 "Strange," she said then. "You must perceive, Count Egino von 
 Ortenburg, that this is a strange scene. A foreigner, whom I 
 do not know, of whom I only know he appears in different roles, 
 stands there quite unexpectedly and suddenly before me, and speaks 
 to me of a right to my confidence. He wishes an explanation, an 
 explanation of my actions, my situation, my thoughts, motives, 
 and all that because to him my actions, to which chance made him a 
 witness, are mysterious. Do you not yourself feel, my German 
 Count, that you, you to whom I only for the sake of Father 
 Eustachius allowed entrance to this chamber " 
 
 "That I am laughable in my presumption, you would say, 
 Madame. It is possible I appear so to you. And still you are
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 123 
 
 wrong. That I appear so unexpectedly, so suddenly before you, do 
 not charge against me. That which comes before us most unex- 
 pectedly, and for which we are most unprepared, is often that which 
 takes most earnest hold upon our being. What would life be if 
 fate did not, once in awhile, as if with a holy hail-storm, seize upon 
 us and cast us into a new road. Such a sacred hail-storm is it when 
 a man looks upon a woman by whose appearance a hot flame 
 and a great light falls upon his soul, a light that shows to him 
 he has in himself a heart, a power, a will, of whose force he was not 
 before aware. If I were recommended to you by good friends, 
 placed before you by your relatives ; if I had met you in a gay circle 
 of associates to pay to you my devotions, I would not, with my 
 interest, seem laughable. Now since I am a stranger, who presses 
 to you in his own way, I appear so. Wherefore ? Believe me, 
 so solemn as was your situation when they wedded you to a 
 dead man, is that which took place in me when I perceived it : that 
 which arose in me and has mastered me since that moment, believe 
 me, is worthy of your full sympathy ! " 
 
 Egino had spoken all this with firm precision, and almost imperi- 
 ously, his face crimsoning, and his head with its blonde waving locks 
 thrown back. 
 
 The Countess had looked upon him as if more busy with the fine 
 features of the young man than with what he said ; she now answered 
 with a tone entirely changed, softly, as if suddenly submitting to the 
 fact that she must discuss the matter with him. 
 
 "Your name is Count Egino von Ortenburg ; where lies your 
 ancestral house ? " 
 
 "In Swabia." 
 
 " Swabia ! " she repeated with a peculiar tone, as if with a sup- 
 pressed sigh, such as that with which a homesick person calls the 
 name of his land. 
 
 "How long have you been in Italy ? " she then asked, after a pause. 
 
 " In Italy for years. I have been in Bologna, at the High School." 
 
 "And in Rome?" 
 
 " Weeks, months." 
 
 " Was Count Eitelfriedrich von Ortenburg your forefather ? " 
 
 " He was the ancestor of the line of our house to which I belong. 
 What do you know of him, my lady ? " 
 
 "He fought," she replied, deliberately, "at the side of my grand- 
 sire, Duke Frederic von Antioch, in the battle of Benevent."
 
 124 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Your grandsire Frederic von Antioch ! " exclaimed Egino. 
 "Frederic von Antioch was son of Emperor Frederic II., brother 
 to King Manfred, to King Enzio ; he was your grandsire ? " 
 
 "He was. He was King Manfred's younger brother " 
 
 "And you, you were his granddaughter, his blood ? " 
 
 " I am," she said quietly. " Duke Frederic's son was Conrad von 
 Antioch and Alba, and first Count of Anticoli. Since his descendants 
 were always called Conrad, or in the Italian idiom Corrado, Anticoli, 
 their seat, is called, after them, Anticoli-Corrado, and I am also called 
 Corradina after my father. 
 
 " And therefore you bear the coat-of-arms of the Buren ! You are 
 in a direct line an offspring of the heroic blood of the Hohen- 
 staufen ! " 
 
 " I am the last, the only remaining one of the race of the Hohen- 
 staufen," she said. 
 
 Egino stared at her still a few seconds as if caught in a trance. 
 Then he knelt down before her on both knees ; he opened his lips, 
 looking upward as if he would speak to her ; stooped to kiss the hem 
 of her dress ; and when he again looked up at her, Corradina saw 
 that tears were streaming over his face. 
 
 She looked with her great eyes calmly, almost absent-mindedly 
 into his ; then there came into hers a moist glance. She slowly 
 brought her face nearer his own with an expression of infinite 
 mildness and submissiveness, which suddenly and wonderfully illumi- 
 nated her face ; she lifted her hand and laid it upon Egino's head, 
 and appeared to wish to draw his head gently to herself ; then 
 pressed it with sudden agitation from her, threw her head back, and 
 said half-aloud, almost unintelligibly, pointing to a chair : 
 
 "Arise! Seat yourself there."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A PROUD LINEAGE. 
 
 GINO had arisen and obeyed her command. 
 
 "Do you believe," she said, "when Father Eustachius 
 presented to me his strange request that I should give to 
 a strange man explanations, that I should have bidden 
 him lead you to me if he had not mentioned the name of Ortenburg, 
 and if the name had not been that of one of the truest vassal races 
 of my house ? * And now I see you have not applied this name 
 to yourself without right ; I see that you are worthy of your fathers, 
 and a true blood is in you." 
 
 " I know from the history of my forefathers that we owe every- 
 thing to your house," replied Egino. " But it is not that which takes 
 such a hold upon me in this moment ; which so convulses and rages 
 through me ; which causes me to pour forth a flood of tears, and then 
 again rejoice over this most unexpected occurrence of my life. I 
 see the splendor of the most illustrious race and celebrated ancestry 
 shine forth before me in you, in you, my lady " 
 
 "There, there," said Corradina, interrupting him with an impa- 
 tient motion of the hand, "leave me aside, and speak of yourself; of 
 your, of our land, of Germany. Is the memory and the tradition 
 still living there of that which once was when still the king- 
 dom " 
 
 " When the kingdom was still the world, the civilized world, and 
 the entire circuit of Christian humanity, and your race the shield 
 and guardian of its greatness. Oh, certainly, the tradition of it is 
 still living! It lets your grandsire, 'The Redbeard,' sleep in his 
 castle ; the tradition itself does not sleep ; it cannot, dare not ever be 
 lost to the German people ; for therein truly lies its eternal claim to 
 
 * According to the usual supposition, the race of the Hohenstaufens was terminated with 
 Conradin, 1268, and the children of King Manfred. In truth, however, King Manfred's younger 
 brother, Frederic, had descendants, who caused the race to continue through several centuries 
 beyond that. 
 
 135
 
 126 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 imperial rank among the nations, the eternal reminder of her duty 
 to stride forward in front of other peoples upon the road leading to 
 the goal of humanity." 
 
 Upon Corradina's features became diffused, as it were, the still 
 light of joy, while Egino thus spoke. She breathed quickly, and 
 with her great glance resting upon him she said : 
 
 "And they still speak of the Hohenstaufen?" 
 
 "The Hohenstaufen! Oh! believe me, the name has a charmed 
 sound in every German castle, in every house, in every breast. It 
 arouses a flight of thoughts in us which are like eagles, and fly over 
 the land ; it conjures forth pictures from the skill of powerful men 
 who wrestle with the chains of ecclesiastical servitude ; it awakens 
 around us ringing tones, as if the golden strings began again to 
 vibrate to whose sound the singers of Barbarossa and Frederic sang 
 of lofty deeds of knights and of woman's love at every high feast in 
 golden Mainz, on the strand of the German stream, or in the castles 
 of Sicily, on the banks of the blue Mediterranean. Oh ! the sound 
 of this name comes to meet us as the roaring which passes through 
 the tops of the German mountain forests with the old voices of the 
 gods. It diffuses the sunny splendor of Sicily around us ; it wafts to 
 us the flower-fragrance of Concha d'oro, and its magic erects for us 
 the loftiest domes of the father-land. Forever stands the name of 
 Hohenstaufen hewn into the foundation above which the wonderful 
 structure of the human mind arises." 
 
 Corradina had arisen ; with a quick movement she had seized both 
 of Egino's hands, and exclaimed : 
 
 " That, that, binds me to you, Count Ortenburg, not your foolish 
 request to force yourself into my situation ; to wish to play the 
 knight of an oppressed woman, for which you seem to hold me. 
 But these words do it ; these words and this feeling out of which 
 they spring make me happy " 
 
 "And how can my feeling make you happy," interposed Egino, 
 laying hold on both her hands, " if this feeling for you, for your 
 situation, should be allowed nothing, no service to her " 
 
 " I do not need your service," said she, quickly withdrawing 
 her hands, and turning away as if suddenly chilled. 
 
 " Pardon, if I cannot believe it. A woman so young, so beautiful, 
 so lofty in thought, so warm in feeling as you, cannot be forced 
 to something which you still did only by compulsion, unless " 
 
 "I did not allow myself compelled," said she, proudly interrupting
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 127 
 
 him again, and throwing back her head. "The dead Luca was 
 my choice ! " 
 
 " Impossible ! " rejoined Egino. 
 
 " And still it is so. He was my free choice ? " 
 
 "You surely would not, uncompelled, have given your hand to 
 a dead man ? " 
 
 "So I did and forever. Still, what is that to you?" 
 
 "And then," exclaimed Egino, "does it not lie heavily as a 
 transgression upon your soul, this terrible suicide, this crime 
 against your liberty, your life, this legerdemain? Pardon me; 
 passion carries me away " 
 
 " Speak, only speak. You believe I have thereby committed a 
 transgression ? I deny it. I know what I' owe to my name. You 
 reproach me with legerdemain " 
 
 " Yes ; you have made sport of the most important, the most 
 earnest, the most holy thing, the vow of woman before the altar. 
 This dark widow's garb, without having been the wife of any man, 
 this name of Savelli which you wear, are they anything but a lie r 
 as a false mask ?" 
 
 " I have," replied Corradina, calmly, " spoken with Father Eusta- 
 chius about the matter ; he is my father confessor. And," she 
 continued, with the hint of a gentle smile, " should he not be a 
 better judge of it than a young German count, who has, indeed, not 
 studied theology in the school of Bologna ? " 
 
 "Do you ask whether an Italian monk is a better judge than an 
 honorable German conscience, noble lady ? Oh ! certainly, certainly 
 not ! And if theology seems to you a matter of so much importance, 
 well, then, German theology will certainly feel, decide, judge as I do. 
 If you would like to let this come to the test, I would place before 
 you a German divine who would demonstrate it to you. Oh ! if I 
 had the mind of Brother Martin and his eloquence, to say to you 
 what there is in me which revolts against your action, in order to 
 tear away from you this mask of quiet satisfaction which you present 
 to me, in order to win you back again to the life you have re- 
 nounced! I would that I possessed his tongue " 
 
 " In order to hold for me a penal lecture ? " smilingly interposed 
 Corradina, in a mild tone. " Who, then, is this eloquent Brother 
 Martin ? " 
 
 "A German monk, slightly my friend, and a man like an apostle."
 
 128 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 "A monk, and at the same time an apostle?" she rejoined, with 
 a shrug of the shoulders. 
 
 " So I say ; and if you could hear him, if you could see him with 
 his flashing eye " 
 
 "Why shouldn't I see him ? I have no objection. Bring me the 
 apostle ; a young woman may allow an apostle to pass sentence upon 
 her, not a young knight. Still, you may be present at the judgment, 
 and hear him absolve me. To be candid, although I have no pleasure 
 in defending myself before you, yet I would give a little to be pro- 
 nounced free from charge in your presence, and to be justified. And 
 now farewell. It is better that this interview end now. Come with 
 him, your wonder of a monk, to-morrow, if you will, at this hour. 
 Since he is an order-man-, the cloister of Santa Sabina will stand 
 open to him, and the attendance of your apostle the monks will cer- 
 tainly allow you if you say I wish it ! God protect you ! " 
 
 She again reached him her hand, which he pressed to his heart. 
 
 " I go, happy that, as an Ortenburg, I have the right to be forever 
 your vassal and servant ! " 
 
 A cool smile and a slight nod of the head answered this exclamation 
 of Egino. 
 
 Egino departed. 
 
 From the terrace outside, Father Eustachius had disappeared. 
 Egino found him again, beyond, in the garden of the cloister. 
 
 " And now," asked the monk, stepping up to him out of one of 
 the walks, " are your conscientious scruples appeased ? " 
 
 " Not quite," answered Egino ; "still, they shall be to-morrow. Till 
 morning, also, you will be obliged to tolerate me here in your walls as 
 a guest, and allow to a German monk to make to me the same road 
 which I went to-day." 
 
 "To a German monk ! Wherefore ? For what purpose ? " 
 
 "Because he is my friend." 
 
 The exercise-master regarded him not agreeably surprised, as it 
 seemed. Then he said : 
 
 " If Countess Corradina desires it, what could we have against 
 it ? " 
 
 " She wishes it." 
 
 The exercise-master merely nodded the head, and turned to pass 
 down the nearest walk ; still, after two steps, turning round, avoid- 
 ing, however, Egino's glance, he said softly, and with a peculiarly 
 earnest intonation :
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 129 
 
 " Signore Conte, I have done for you more than I dared. I have 
 been silent to my superiors as to the fact that I have penetrated your 
 design ; I have given you opportunity to satisfy yourself over that 
 which you presented as burdensome to your conscience. I have 
 also warned you not to show want of reverence toward the sons 
 of San Dominico ; now I warn you again. Leave the cloister, and 
 forget Lady Corradina Savelli." 
 
 " She has bidden me return to her," replied Egino, obstinately. 
 " You should not hinder me from doing so. I think want of respect 
 to a Savelli would look as bad in San Dominico's monks, as in me 
 the want of respect to San Dominico's monks. So I will remain, if 
 you do not otherwise drive me out, and compel me to construct a 
 road to her through her castle, through the open portal over there." 
 
 "That would prove a difficult thing for you," answered Eusta- 
 chius, looking upon the ground. "Still, as you will! Blessed be 
 Jesus Christ ! " 
 
 The monk moved slowly away. 
 
 Egino betook himself to his cell, in order to write a letter to 
 Brother Martin, in the cloister of the Augustines, at Santa Maria 
 del Popolo. When he had finished it he gave it, with a bit of 
 money, to his lay brother, that the latter might send it to his resi- 
 dence in the Albergo del Drago, where Gotz should seek out with 
 it Brother Martin. Alessio promised to attend to it faithfully.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LIVIO SAVELLI. 
 
 | HEN Egino was gone, Corradina sat long upon the couch 
 in the background of her chamber, and looked through 
 the open casement into the far distance, with half-shut 
 lids, with that faint luster of the eye which indicates how 
 far the soul is removed from the things now surrounding it. She sat 
 thus motionless, her hands folded in her lap, when she suddenly- 
 started. Without having heard a knock the side-door opened, and 
 Count Livio Savelli stepped upon the threshold. 
 
 He carried something in his hand, which he placed before Corra- 
 dina upon the little round table at the head of her couch ; then, with- 
 out waiting for invitation, he took his seat upon a chair standing 
 near, which Egino had previously occupied. 
 
 "You love these old works of art, beautiful sister-in-law," he said, 
 showing to her, at the same time, the trifle. " See what I bring 
 you ; it is an old silver bowl, with half-raised figures upon it. The. 
 two dolphins which serve as handles are especially fine." 
 
 "Indeed, it is beautiful," replied Corradina, examining the old 
 and but little-injured dish. "Whence did you obtain it ?" 
 
 " My servant Antonio bought it from one of the Lombard peasants 
 who come here to work in our vineyards. You know these men, 
 while turning up the mold, find manifold treasures, old bronzes, 
 coins, cameos, and they give them to one for a trifling sum. I 
 thought the bowl would serve you for throwing into it your orna- 
 ments and rings." 
 
 " I thank you, Livio ; it is valuable to me for its fine classic work- 
 manship," replied Corradina. " How gladly would I seek for such 
 things ! Also, I think it must be an absorbing entertainment to 
 look upon the great excavations which Master Raphael Santi has 
 carried on in the soil of our old city." 
 
 '3
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 131 
 
 " If you wish to see it, Corradina, I am ready to take you. 
 As I understand, the master will in a short time have them pene- 
 trate into the earth under our feet also. He asserts that out of the 
 substructions of the Temple of Diana, which once crowned this height 
 of the Aventine, outlets must have led down to the river, and he in- 
 tends to search them and lay them open, in order to make his way 
 into those substructions, which he believes might also lead to the 
 graves of the old kings Aventinus and Tatius, or even to the cavern 
 of the fabulous giant Cacus, whom tradition has to reside just here. 
 In any case, whether in the area subdivalis of Diana's temple or not, 
 he will somewhere fall upon a grotto world ; for where are they not 
 to be found in these hills of ours ? And you know how, in such pro- 
 tected vaults and grottos, countless remnants of antiquity, even fres- 
 coes, have been found, which they, on that account, call grotesques." 
 
 "I know; but I thank you for your offer," said Corradina. "It 
 would not be suitable for me, in my state of widowhood, to betake 
 myself into such a host of laboring-men." 
 
 "In your state of widowhood ! You are right, cara mia" answered 
 Livio Savelli, supporting his arm on the back of his chair and his 
 chin on his hand. " You are right ! " he repeated in a slow, drawling 
 tone, at the same time observing Corradina's features with glances 
 peculiarly lurking under his brows. " Poor sister-in-law, how long 
 will it be possible for you to play this role ? " he then added, suddenly 
 throwing up his head in a vivacious manner. 
 
 " Certainly so long as custom bids me," replied Corradina, quietly. 
 
 Livio shook his head gently. 
 
 " Do you believe it ? " he said. " Do you believe you could hold out 
 a year long in this dead, desolate castle, seasick with tediousness, 
 ill from disgust at the monotony of your days, stupid from thinking 
 always of the same things ? They say, ' Out of a cock's egg the 
 Devil broods a basilisk : ' loneliness broods the worst and most poi- 
 sonous worms out of the eggs of our imagination." 
 
 " I enjoy this solitude," answered Corradina, calmly. " I am hap- 
 pier here than in the excitement of hollow society, where men, under 
 the forms of friendship, conceal how deeply they have departed from 
 it within. I hate now for once all concealment. I have always 
 loved solitude ; what you call tediousness, I have only experienced 
 when men around me forced me to think of things which do not ap- 
 pear worth the trouble that one should think of them, and yet 
 politeness demands of me to feign an interest I do not feel. I know
 
 1 32 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 how to make work for myself ; and I have learned so much that I 
 know how much I have yet to learn in order to lay hold on and com- 
 prehend the least part of what I should like to comprehend. And 
 so, then, I bless this my lonely widowhood, which is so like my maiden 
 years at the quiet castle of Anticoli, the happiest time of my life." 
 
 " You call that the happiest part of your life, because you were 
 then much sought for. And so it might please you. Women are 
 pleased only with the continuance of that which helps them to please 
 themselves. Solitude here will do that awhile. You will look upon 
 yourself in the light of a poetic isolation. Very soon, however, will 
 it grow tedious to you, that only you see yourself therein, and you 
 will soon desire to learn from others how you impress them in your 
 character of recluse." 
 
 Corradina shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 "One only would I like to have," said she, after a pause : " I would 
 like to have Angela again as my maid." 
 
 " Have you so pardoned Rafael Riario that you no more avoid to 
 look in the eyes of Angela?" 
 
 " I have not pardoned the Cardinal, and shall not pardon him. If 
 I will overcome the avoiding of the eyes of Angela as a childish 
 feeling, it is because I wish near me some one I can fully trust." 
 
 " Do you not trust me ? " 
 
 " That you cannot yourself suppose ! " answered Corradina, with 
 bitterness. 
 
 "You do me wrong, deep wrong, Corradina. Your wish, how- 
 ever, I cannot fulfill ; you must tell it to my father, who will be 
 eager to do it." 
 
 Corradina was silent. 
 
 "Don't you believe it ?" asked Livio, again lifting upon her the 
 lurking glance. 
 
 As if to avoid an answer, Corradina took again the silver bowl 
 which Livio had brought her, and appeared to view it attentively. 
 
 " I forgot while I was saying what I have said hitherto," pursued 
 Livio Savelli now again, with a wicked smile distorting his lips, 
 " that you are not entirely alone in this old castle. My father has 
 taken up his permanent residence herein, in order to be able to fulfill 
 the duties of his guardianship over you so much more zealously and 
 faithfully." 
 
 "My marriage makes me of age, and this castle is large," she an- 
 swered coolly.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 133 
 
 "Very large and wide indeed," replied Livio. "On one side of it 
 many things can happen of which one may not be aware on the 
 other side." 
 
 " Many people can live in it without placing themselves under 
 restraint." 
 
 " How unembarrassed you act, cara mia." 
 
 " What is there to make me embarrassed ? The Duke of Aricia 
 has a right to live wherever it pleases him in his houses." 
 
 Livio began to drum with his fingers upon the arm-rests of his 
 chair, while he, apparently lost in thought, gazed through the win- 
 dow into the distance. 
 
 "Corradina," he then said, "let us speak candidly with each other. 
 It only depends upon you to make an end of this jugglery of widow- 
 hood, which holds you here pent up and separated from all the joys 
 of life ; only upon you to end this danger which threatens you from 
 my father." 
 
 "What danger ? I am the wife, the widow of his son." 
 
 Livio shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "You are that," he said ; "but you see, indeed, he remains here in 
 nearness to you in the house which you should occupy as a widow ! 
 I fear we have, with the marriage, done only half, only what is in- 
 adequate, useless. It would have been better for you to have become 
 mine, my wife, instead of the dead Luca's." 
 
 Corradina opened her eyes upon him ; he could read in them un- 
 concealed astonishment. 
 
 A bitter smile glided over his lips. 
 
 " For that purpose I must have been a widower, do you think ? " 
 he said. "Now, yes. Perhaps out of love to you, I might have 
 found means to become such." 
 
 Her glance still rested upon him. Then she turned away from 
 him, angrily knitting her brows, and with the unmistakable tone of 
 contempt she answered half aloud : 
 
 " I will not have heard what you say ! " 
 
 " That you are not accustomed to hear what I say, I know. If you 
 would do it you would have no man who would devote himself more 
 entirely to you with body and soul ; who, for your sake, would more 
 obstinately challenge the whole world, not even shunning death and 
 damnation, if it would conduce to your happiness." 
 
 "W r hat would that help me?" responded Corradina, rejectingly; 
 "I thank you for a happiness purchased with the danger of death
 
 134 LUTHER IN ROME, 
 
 and condemnation, and the friendship of a daring which challenges 
 the whole world. And with that let us end this conversation. I do 
 not see why you came to say this to me ; you cannot possibly be- 
 lieve that it is agreeble to me to hear it." 
 
 " Cara mia" interposed Livio, "do not trouble yourself about it; 
 for did you never say things to me which were not agreeable for me 
 to hear ? Still, I will obey you, and cut short this interview, which 
 seems to become so burdensome to you. But I cannot relinquish 
 the thought that it would be better for you to leave this castle, and 
 return to the Castle Savello bei Albano. The hot summer months 
 approach, during which the air upon the Aventine is not healthful ; 
 in the mountains beyond it is fresher better for you." 
 
 " Do you speak in earnest ? " 
 
 " Why do you doubt it ? I speak so very much in earnest that I 
 have had everything there made ready for your reception." 
 
 " You have never in your life done anything more useless, Livio J " 
 
 " I believe it not. In the first place, I beg you only reflect over my 
 proposition ; and also say to yourself a little that I have made up my 
 mind about the matter. For since my father has now lost his head, 
 I must, in his place, take a little authority in the guidance of the 
 affairs of our house. I will not allow, Corradina, that you die here 
 through the fever of malaria, through the tediousness of loneliness, 
 or through madness from terror of my father. In the Castle Savello 
 I will do everything to atone to you, through enjoyment and pleasure, 
 for that which lies behind you. I will also let Angela come to you 
 there, if you request it, although she may be pretty well grown wild 
 with her goats in the mountains ! " 
 
 Corradina had slightly changed color at the words of Livio. She 
 was evidently troubled by them. Still she arose and answered with 
 quiet pride : 
 
 "You could make my stay in this house in all respects unendurable 
 to me, if you came frequently to insult me with such proposals ; yours, 
 however, would be the last where I would seek refuge." 
 
 She stepped with erect carriage through the room, and turning 
 her back upon Livio, entered a window-niche. 
 
 Livio's face took on a threatening, angry expression ; a still fury 
 glowed through the narrow slits of his eyes, while he stroked with 
 his hand that part of his dark beard covering the upper lip, putting 
 it between his teeth and biting upon it. Still, after a pause he said, 
 with apparently perfect calmness :
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 135 
 
 " You should not make it too hard for me, you woman of marble ! 
 Why are you so hard against me ? That I should serve you, that I 
 should assist you against all, have you willingly allowed to be pleas- 
 ing to you ; and yet you knew how I felt for you " 
 
 " Does your assistance to what your own interest constrained you, 
 justify you in torturing me?" 
 
 " My interest because it was yours ; I have never separated the 
 two. And as to the torturing how may you complain of trouble 
 who swim against a stream ? Cease to struggle against it ! Still 
 you will that I leave you. I will, if you promise me to reflect over 
 my proposition." 
 
 " I promise you to forget it ; that is more favorable for you." 
 
 " You will not be able to forget it ; I will return in order to speak 
 of it again. Take care of yourself in the meantime, caret sorella" 
 
 He departed. When Corradina turned her face from the window, 
 to be assured that he had left the room, her features had become 
 pale as marble. 
 
 " It is dreadful ! " she whispered, after awhile. " Can I in no way 
 purchase rest from them, not even through the most venturesome 
 and most difficult thing ? 
 
 "And he is right in it all ! I am alone, alone, alone here ! And 
 :so defenseless, so dreadfully defenseless against these men ! " 
 
 She began to pace noiselessly to and fro. There came over her a 
 sort of desperation, which, in order to escape the intolerable, might 
 blindly enter upon that course which could snatch her away to other 
 destinies, and these also hurl her life's boat into storm and 
 destruction. 
 
 She strode hastily up and down. She thought of the German 
 who, so deeply moved, so passionately, had offered to her his ser- 
 vices. " Oh that he were only a more mature, a more discreet 
 man, with gray hairs!" she said to herself; "I would say to him, 
 ' Let me fly with you, fly over your Alps, and as far as my feet 
 can carry me ! ' '
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN THE STUDIO OF RAPHAEL. 
 
 APHAEL dwelt on the Tiber, on the left bank, opposite 
 the great Hospital von San Spirito lying on the right, in 
 a little house now destroyed ; for he had not yet built his 
 little palace on the Borgo, which is now partly destroyed, 
 partly built up into the Palace Accorombone. Between the back of 
 the house and the river was a little garden, which was bordered 
 along the water by a low wall ; through this wall a little grated door 
 allowed exit to the moist, river-washed stone steps leading down into 
 the water. One does not travelin gondolas upon the charming Tiber,* 
 still, this was a place perfectly adapted to landing with a little boat, 
 and quietly coming ashore in the dark, silent night. 
 
 The little garden contained nothing but a starved, foot-trodden 
 sod, and some orange trees which shaded it ; some laurel bushes and 
 oleanders, which covered from view, right and left, the walls of neigh- 
 boring houses. What further filled it was not fruit or flowers, but 
 stones ; stones, however, formed by the hand of man into images as 
 beautiful as flowers. They were exhumed relics of antiquity ; reliefs, 
 statues, busts of women, heroes, and gods, all more or less pre- 
 served or half ruined. They stood among each other rather irregu- 
 larly upon pedestals, in the grass, leaned against the trunks of 
 orange trees. Also, now no great veneration fell to their share, for a 
 young girl of about eighteen was even now busy winding a clothes- 
 line about the neck of a mutilated god, to whom was wanting the 
 legs up to the thighs ; and he therefore seemed sunken into the 
 earth, as if gallantly presenting to the pretty maiden his beautifully 
 formed neck at just the proper height. 
 
 Out of the garden a little flight of two or three steps led into the 
 house through a door-opening, which was covered only with a blue 
 curtain. This curtain was even now drawn back by the master of 
 the house, and fastened at the side to a hook.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 137 
 
 The painter stepped upon the threshold ; he leaned himself with 
 the left shoulder against the withdrawn drapery, so that one freely 
 obtained a glance beyond him into the spacious studio, filled with a 
 soft light, out of which he stepped. 
 
 His eyes followed the movements of the young girl. 
 
 " You throw a halter around the neck of the Apollo ; has he de- 
 served it ? " he said. 
 
 " Eh, who knows ? " she answered. " I only know he very patiently 
 allows the rope to be fastened around." 
 
 "And whoever patiently allows a rope placed about his neck, also- 
 deserves it, you mean, Margarita." 
 
 "These wicked old gods have all deserved it," she replied, "arid 
 most certainly such a Bacchus as this ; for it is a Bacchus, and no' 
 Apollo, as you call him." 
 
 " And will you draw the distinction between them you ? " 
 
 " Why not ? Have I not yet heard you, Master Raphael, and your 
 learned friends talk enough about such things ? This quite light 
 and tenderly rounded body," she continued, observing the marble 
 with a precociously knowing mien, " this soft breast, these full hips, 
 are those of a Bacchus or an Antinous, not of an Apollo, whose 
 frame must be stronger, firmer." 
 
 " Indeed," said Raphael, laughing, "one might go to school to you." 
 
 "And still I have learned all this in your school! Otherwise what 
 care I for these naked old gods ? What you could learn from me,. 
 carissimo, are other things ." 
 
 "And what?" 
 
 "Eh, much. Men could always learn very much from women." 
 
 "Not one thing could you teach us, Margarita." 
 
 " One ? I think many, because you do not now understand many 
 things which they try to bring to your doors." 
 
 " No ; only one how to be deprived of you ! " 
 
 "And if we could, would we be willing to it ? " she rejoined, smil- 
 ing with her whole pretty, roguish face. 
 
 "We could not do without you and still we have you not ! " he 
 added. 
 
 "Now I do not understand you." 
 
 " No ; you do not understand that," he replied, coming out, in order 
 to seat himself near her upon the head of an old marble bust, and to 
 so draw the " Fornarina " to himself, that he could lay his head 
 against her 1 with half-shut eyes.
 
 138 LUTHER IN ROME, 
 
 " You have us not ? " she responded, laying her hand upon his 
 dark hair, with a half undertone. "Did you say that to me to 
 me ? And I mean," she continued, with louder and almost angry 
 tone, "you would formerly have found still many of them, from your 
 friend to whom your glowing sonnets pertain, to your betrothed 
 Maria Bibiena, to " 
 
 "Ah! my dear, ethereal bride the poor, tender plant who was 
 too sensitive for this harsh, terrestrial atmosphere do not remind 
 me of her ! " interposed Raphael, with a sigh. " And what befell that 
 lofty, glorious being who " 
 
 Margarita, pettishly drawing her brows together, gave him a gen- 
 tle tap on the beautiful, expressive mouth with the " well-mated lips," 
 which seemed about to express something that could only have 
 astonished and charmed her. 
 
 "Why do you strike me before I have spoken?" said Raphael. 
 4t Do you know what I would say ? See, I meant it this way : 
 we have in you not yourself as you cause our desires to paint 
 you ; we have not that in you which our souls yet cannot do 
 without there lies the pain of life for us." 
 
 " What have you not in us ? " asked Margarita. " No angels, but 
 weak women, who love you more than you faithless creatures 
 deserve. Is it that of which you wish to complain ? " 
 
 " You are right. Take it so. What shall I complain of you ? 
 What shall I reproach you for ? Do you know the story of Pygma- 
 lion, the sculptor, who carved a woman out of stone, and effected 
 that his prayers to Jove gave her a soul, and made her living ? 
 Since then it has happened to the contrary with many men ; 
 they have a living, loving wife, on whom they hew and labor so 
 much she becomes stone to them. Therefore will I rather leave you 
 as you are, Margarita. Is it your fault if in you that divine and 
 eternal something in which our soul seeks its life does not burn ? 
 Not that light which your beauty seems to radiate from itself, 
 .and that is still only a reflection which our ardor throws upon you ?" 
 
 "Then," answered Margarita, gayly, and little touched by this 
 speech, "it happens to us as to the planets, to whom also their light 
 is thrown only by the glow of the sun. What more do you want, 
 you great proud sons of men, than to find in us living planets from 
 your light ? " 
 
 "Ah! planets are heavenly bodies and you are vain earthly 
 dust ; painted dishes upon the table of fortune ; beautiful still
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 139 
 
 life without idea ! And so we end the struggle with the insatiable 
 thirst of the soul for the infinite, which is not in you and not about 
 you, in creating and forming as if, indeed, we reach it there ! All 
 our trouble and labor is only the restrained love-force which takes 
 pleasure in the poem, in color, or in stone." 
 
 " So it is well that your lofty, glorious sonnet queen is not yours, 
 as your Fornarina, this poor lantern, in whom you find no light," 
 remarked Margarita, with pouting of the red lips; "for if she ap- 
 peased your repressed love-force, you would throw away from you 
 brush and colors, and let Pope Julius see how he would get his 
 chamber walls painted ! " 
 
 "So it is," answered Raphael, "perhaps. I would live, love, be 
 happy and idle, throw from me the brush, all that vexed me, and 
 even almost forget the sermon of the rude German monk." 
 
 " Of what German monk ? " 
 
 " Of a German monk who has vexed me ; still, what does that con- 
 cern you ? Follow me ; you must sit for me." 
 
 " I cannot to-day, it is so fearfully tiresome ; and you always paint 
 something quite other than myself, when I have sat there all day 
 long with the patience of an ass, as motionless as a statue." 
 
 " I paint your hands, your shoulders, your breast, the folds of your 
 drapery which I throw over you, but your features I cannot use. I 
 need others if I paint an angel, my little demon ; others if I repre- 
 sent the deepest and most sacred mother-love ; for you, with your 
 roguish eyes, your saucy lips, as red as fresh-blown pomegranate 
 blossoms " 
 
 " I am no saint ; I know it," replied Margarita, with a mixture of 
 pouting and sadness, looking away from Raphael beyond the stream 
 into the distance. "But you, you should not throw it up to me ! " 
 
 "Do I, anima miaf" 
 
 " Oh ! you say to me to-day none but bad things ; I will hear 
 nothing more, and go to bring my washing. But let this be said to 
 you, that I have not the least respect for your 'deepest and most 
 sacred mother-love ' as you represent it in your Madonnas, although 
 all men praise them and outweigh them with gold." 
 
 " No ? And why are you not satisfied with them ? Let us hear, 
 Margarita." 
 
 " What shall I say ? That is also one of the things about which 
 we could not teach you men anything, for you cannot understand 
 us."
 
 I 4 o LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Tell me, anyway ; I will make every effort to understand your 
 instruction, carissima." 
 
 "Well, then, do you believe that the Madonna was a good, hon- 
 est woman, with a whole, strong, womanly heart ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 "Well, then, she did not become espoused and wedded to St. 
 Joseph without loving him. Is that true ? " 
 
 "That is true." 
 
 "And do your Madonnas love their St. Joseph? " 
 
 " They love the infant more ! " 
 
 " And you have never reflected over why and wherefore a mother 
 loves her child, and when she does it with the fullness of her soul ? 
 Truly," continued she, hesitating and half-aloud, "if I had a 
 child " 
 
 " You now, you ? " said Raphael, looking at her and searching 
 her eyes. 
 
 She turned her eyes slowly to his with a half-tender, half-reproach- 
 ful look, then went to the house. When she reached the steps of 
 the door, she turned back smiling roguishly. 
 
 "Come, come," she said, "you paint the Madonna gazing in 
 ecstasy upon the infant, and St. Joseph, delighted, in the back- 
 ground. That is clever, manly labor, and I will go to my stupid 
 woman's work." 
 
 Raphael with both hands stroked the hair from his brow; then 
 supporting his chin upon his hand, he said: 
 
 " Margarita should take this German monk to task with such 
 thoughts ! Will that simple cowl-wearer never get out of my head ? " 
 
 He sat there awhile thinking, when a servant stepped upon the 
 threshold of the garden door. 
 
 "What do you wish, Baviera ? " he asked. 
 
 "There are two gentlemen here who wish to speak with you," 
 replied Baviera. "The one is Monsignora von Ragusa, the other a 
 monk." 
 
 " A monk ? Of what order ? " 
 
 "From Santa Maria del Popolo." 
 
 "A yet young man ? I am coming." 
 
 The servant stepped back. Raphael arose to go hastily and 
 excitedly into his studio. 
 
 This was a great, cool room, lighted on the north that is, toward 
 the garden and the river by a large, broad, but rather high-placed
 
 THE HOLY FAMILY. (RAPHAEL.)
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 141 
 
 window, in whose neighborhood stood the easel, with the adjustable 
 stool of the painter before it. On the dark-red painted walls hung 
 pictures in oil and sketches, mostly without frames, but symmetri- 
 cally arranged. Below them extended, along the wall, a long, 
 cushioned seat after the fashion of a divan ; a smaller easel stood 
 in one corner; a large table with papers and drawing materials upon 
 it, all very well ordered, in the other. The whole made the impres- 
 sion of the utmost simplicity. All the thousand objects which fill 
 another studio with its hereditary house-furniture, its casts, its 
 statuettes, its draperies, its old weapons, and so forth, were wanting 
 here. It was evident that the man who thought, felt, and created 
 here in this one, did not have the need to become confused by a 
 chaos of gay colors and forms, but to keep far from himself perplex- 
 ing impressions. 
 
 There were also enough of those objects which pertain to the pro- 
 fession in the great back room opening from the studio, and into 
 which one looked through an open door. There were a pair of young- 
 people occupied at easels, another pair sat at drawing-tables ; in the 
 background already stood Baviera, again rubbing colors, and around 
 on the walls, on the furniture, was a full supply of those things 
 which could serve as models or implements for any demand of the 
 work, or of pleasure. 
 
 The young men there beyond appeared accustomed to a respectful 
 stillness in the presence of the master. They labored in silence, or 
 only whispering. 
 
 When Raphael had stepped into the front chamber, he found the 
 two men announced standing in its midst. 
 
 The monk was no other than the one he had expected to see, 
 according to Baviera's announcement ; it was Brother Martin. The 
 other was a medium-sized, strong man, whose fat, yet lively and 
 intelligent face, with the squinting glances, the highly mobile fea- 
 tures, was not entirely adapted to the costume of a bishop, the 
 violet robe, the hat with its gold-interwoven green band, in which 
 he appeared. 
 
 " Monsignore Phadra," said Raphael, extending his hand to the 
 latter, "you surprise and rejoice me." 
 
 " Do not say that so hastily, Master Santi," said the one addressed. 
 "Will it rejoice you if I come for the first time to scold you that you 
 have not come to wish me joy over the occasion of my elevation to 
 the bishopric of Ragusa ? "
 
 142 -LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Oh ! Was that not joy enough for one man like you ? Should I 
 wish you still more?" rejoined Raphael, banteringly, and inviting 
 both men to take places on the settee. 
 
 " Does there not belong to every office understanding and happi- 
 ness ? " replied the bishop. " And must you not wish to a friend so 
 much the more of these, the less of them you give him credit for ? 
 In the second place, however," continued Monsignore Phadra, seat- 
 ing himself, " I bring you a man here of awful learning ; an incredu- 
 lous, obdurate German, who places himself in opposition to your art, 
 and, I fear, only insists upon it so warmly, that I introduce him to 
 you because he has the intention to quarrel with you like a genuine 
 German." 
 
 "Since you call me a German monk," here interposed Brother 
 Martin, "I have the right to be a little rugged; -and therefore I say 
 to you candidly, my Lord Bishop, that I would like first to quarrel 
 with you because you present so incorrectly what caused me to wish 
 to be allowed to visit this Master Santi in his workshop." 
 
 " Well, then, present it yourself," answered the friend of Raphael, 
 whom the latter addressed, not by his name, Tommaso Inghirami, 
 but Monsignore Phadra. The spiritual gentleman had one time, 
 when he was not, as to-day, librarian of the Pope, and bishop, played 
 the Phaedra in a representation of Seneca's tragedy of Hyppoly- 
 tus, and therein, when a halt in the machinery suspended the 
 progress of the piece, had with such great presence of mind enter- 
 tained the spectators with improvised Latin verses, that the nick- 
 name had remained with him for all time. 
 
 "That I will," responded Brother Martin. "See, noble master, I 
 was in the Vatican Palace, in the rooms which Pope Sixtus IV. had 
 arranged for the celebrated collection of books, with whose oversight 
 this worthy bishop is intrusted. He was condescending enough to 
 lead me around therein, and show to me the learned treasures which 
 Pope Nicholas V. has collected there, and which he brought hither 
 from Avignon, so that our gloriously reigning Holiness has acquired 
 them. Among them, Monsignore Inghirami showed me also a 
 wonderful manuscript, with little miniature pictures finely delineated 
 in gold and vermilion, and other colors such as I had never 
 seen before ; and when I fell into raptures over it, this learned 
 gentleman laughed at me, and called all that with which these old 
 artists presented the mysteries of faith in the living human form as 
 a mockery compared with that created by the new school of art, and
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 143 
 
 especially by yourself, Master Raphael. And so we fell into a 
 dispute over your style of art, which ended with Monsignore 
 Inghirami's angrily drawing me away to follow him into your place 
 of work, where, he said, my eyes should teach me another thing. 
 My heart now desired nothing better; for, since I. have seen your 
 pictures in the chambers of the Vatican, something has lain heavily 
 upon my spirit, and I am revolutionized in my thoughts." 
 
 " Indeed ? " asked Raphael, listening intently. " It has not gone 
 much better with me since you recently, by your words, pressed a 
 sting into my soul. For, to confess it to you, it has vexed me 
 deeply that a man, who with good intellect, and fresh thought, 
 and accurate mind, comes to me from a foreign world, consents not 
 to that for which I strive, but falls into opposition to it. It was no 
 consolation to say to myself : ' He is only a monk crossed in his 
 scholasticism, and whose mother's milk was that oi: superstition' 
 pardon me the candid speech. I said to myself : ' Shall, then, all 
 that you have reached not be great and powerful enough to over- 
 come such a monk with his superstition and scholasticism ? Are 
 my works not eloquent enough to heal and turn back such a mind 
 from its unsoundness ? Are my forms not strong enough to compel 
 him who, foreign to their world, steps before them for the first time 
 to kneel down before their grandeur? Upon the brow and in the 
 eye of this monk lay still a human challenge, whose voice I must 
 hear ! ' And there seized upon me a wonderful unrest, an impulse to 
 attain to something higher, more powerful, something irresistibly 
 compelling, a stinging impulse of longing, and, at the same time, 
 an apostolic inclination to manifest still more clearly, more devotedly 
 to the world, the beauty which I sought to represent still more 
 illuminated by a light which can truly only stream forth from them 
 out of a heavenly beyond. So arose before my mind the image of a 
 Madonna, of a woman who swayed upon the clouds, beautiful as the 
 most beautiful woman that ever walked upon the earth, and yet from 
 whose features, from whose eyes, flows down upon you the fullness 
 of infinity; so that you, let you be the most obdurate monk in the 
 world, must sink upon the knees before her, whether you will or 
 not." 
 
 Brother Martin looked with an expression of surprise into the 
 shining, self-glorified countenance of the painter. Then he said : 
 
 " I had not believed that my recent words aroused in you so much 
 reflection. What happened to me I willingly tell you, that your
 
 144 LUTHER IX ROME. 
 
 works have sunk me into a real melancholy. I saw the world around 
 me here sinfully turned away from Christianity ; I saw the customs 
 becoming savage ; the church led by men who see in her a great 
 institution of force. I saw science alienated from the faith ; and I 
 saw also, now, still the highest that man mentally creates, art, turn 
 itself away from Christian reality ! Shall, then, the Rock of Peter 
 become a solitary, barren island in the stream, on which the waters 
 overflow without troubling themselves further about it ? Shall the 
 faith become lost to the world ? Shall worldly wisdom become our 
 morals ; pleasure, our dogma ; sensual beauty, our worship ? You 
 could not wish that ! Not you ! Afterward I burned to ask you 
 what would happen if art again would turn itself to the highest, to 
 the revelation of divinity; become a theology, and Christianize 
 morals, instead of decoying them deeper into paganism." 
 
 Raphael, meditating, supported his brow upon his hand ; then he 
 said : 
 
 " Do I know ? If art should turn itself to theology, then give us 
 theology, so that it may be possible. Give it to us pure, great, free, 
 in harmony with the inner life of man ; give us a theology which falls 
 like dew upon our spirits, not one which requires of our lips to bab- 
 ble the rosary; of our knees a gliding up holy stairs ; of our stomachs 
 to fast ; of our hands gold for every kind of favor. Give to us a 
 doctrine, not of fear and of threatening, but of love and of liberty. 
 To it can art turn, with it go hand in hand. Fear, and hate, and 
 horror, and devil, and hell, and torment, and death I cannot paint." 
 
 " You see," here remarked the bishop of Ragusa, " our Master is 
 an obdurate heretic, and you will do nothing with him, Fra Martino. 
 If I tell you candidly what I think, it is my advice to let him go as 
 he will. Art will neither aid nor harm religion much; just as 
 dogma, again, neither aids nor harms morals a great deal, if man 
 looks upon it as a great whole. The heathen Nero was a very bad 
 fellow ; the Christian Ezzelin von Romano a still much worse. The 
 Emperor Diocletian, the heathen, had very many Christians tortured 
 to death ; Pope Innocent III., of praiseworthy memory, and his great 
 general, Simon von Montfort, these good Christians would have 
 treated in the same way many more of the Albigensians, an upright 
 people, if there had, indeed, been more of them ! " 
 
 "And you say that, you, a bishop?" asked Brother Martin. 
 
 " I say it," responded Monsignore Phadra calmly, " for see, I 
 think it all depends upon man's receiving a good education, upon
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 145 
 
 his being led by instruction to thought ; by good breeding, to mastery 
 over himself. As to religions, however, they and the representations 
 of men about the future life are always very different, and yet men 
 always have remained very much the same." 
 
 Troubled by this speech of an Italian bishop, the German monk 
 continued : 
 
 " I will grant to you that art has never had much influence over 
 men, your art, which, with all your thoughts and your knowledge, 
 you put into paganism. Old Rome, God knows, had art enough : 
 temples, columns, statues, baths, gold and ivory, and splendor 
 around, inestimable, for us, inconceivable magnificence. And all 
 these Romans, moving about in the midst of such splendor what 
 were they other than miserable dogs, shabby bloodhounds all and 
 severally ? They scourged slaves ; they slaughtered prisoners ; they 
 caused gladiators to tear each other's flesh for their amusement ; 
 they let poor men be torn of beasts ; and they wandered at pleasure 
 in the light of burning torches whose cores were living men. They 
 were horrible wretches despite all their art. And so you see of 
 what use your art is. Christianity alone has softened the manners ; 
 has tamed rudeness ; has disclosed to man his inner self. A 
 spiritual song that I sing to my lute gives to my soul more consola- 
 tion, more trust in God, than all the statues of all the Grecian 
 sculptors, than all the bath halls of all the Roman emperors. There- 
 fore, I say, put Christianity in your art, or it is good for nothing." 
 
 "And I," responded Raphael, "answer you: Give us a Christian- 
 ity that can receive into itself our art." 
 
 "You have the Christianity," exclaimed Brother Martin. "'To 
 you it is given to understand the mysteries of heaven,' says the 
 Master." 
 
 "No; we haven't it," replied Raphael. "Your Christianity, as you 
 have formulated it, is not adapted to us. It has long lain upon me 
 painfully, and often has it become a real torment to me, that I indeed 
 felt it and still did not confess it to myself ; the evidence, however, 
 came over me as an inner revelation. Will you hear how it was ? 
 It was in Sienna, seven or eight years ago, maybe. I had come into 
 the city in order, with Messer Pinturicchio, to paint new frescoes in 
 the library of the cathedral. One day I was shut up alone in this 
 great library hall. I was eager to delineate a Christian saint, a poor 
 suffering, female martyr. I drew, again I erased my lines ; I made 
 them anew, and felt that I created bungling work. Vexed, I fell into
 
 146 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 an irritated humor. The saint with her moonshine body, her starved 
 features, troubled me finally as a ghost. I could not find the form 
 or the features ; she placed upon me, as it were, an Alp which shut 
 off my breath. Tired of wrestling with her, I mopped my brow and 
 threw away the charcoal, and, taking a deep breath, turned away. 
 And see ! when I turned, my eye fell upon that antique group of 
 graces in the middle of the hall ; that group which, in the thirteenth 
 century, some one in Sienna dug out of the rubbish, and which, in 
 spite of its mutilation, shines forth as formerly in the full glory of 
 eternal youth and sublime beauty. My eyes rested, as if bound by 
 magic, upon these forms ; it was as if invisible threads drew me to 
 them ; upon my soul there fell as if a light, and with the light there 
 came as if an inner rejoicing over me. I seized my pencil again, 
 moved to the profoundest depths of my being ; I turned over the leaf 
 with the misdrawn saint, and my hands, as if winged with ecstasy, 
 drew upon the back the heathen forms of marble, the nude women 
 of the gods. From that on all was clear to my mind ; the library 
 hall of Sienna was my way to Damascus." * 
 
 " Paul became a Christian, you a pagan ! " retorted Brother Martin,, 
 dryly. 
 
 "Not quite," rejoined Raphael. "But let us drop this contention, 
 which would never end. Come here and see for yourself these 
 drawings ; perhaps you will sometime learn to think otherwise." 
 
 He arose and went into the room where his pupils were busied. 
 
 Here he opened a portfolio, and drew out of it a great leaf, which 
 was covered with drawings. With it he returned, and placed it upon 
 his easel. 
 
 "See," said he, when the two men stepped up, "that is the sketch 
 of a picture which I have designed for Messer Agostino Chigi. He 
 is to build a villa over there on the banks of the Tiber, and I have 
 undertaken to adorn it for him with frescoes. He wishes one of 
 them to be the story of Galatea. If you are less versed in heathen 
 mythology, our learned bishop here will be able to give us reliable 
 information who Galatea was." 
 
 "The information stands at your service," said the learned bishop 
 and librarian. "You must know, in the first place, that there are 
 three Galateas. Theocritus speaks of one ; she is a young, sensuous 
 Sicilian, who throws apples at the sheep of Polyphemus, in order to- 
 attract the attention of the giant to herself, and to excite his desires. 
 
 * The leaf is still in the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 147 
 
 The second, the Galatea of Lucian, is not so bold and wanton, but a 
 haughty village beauty, the beloved of Polyphemus, and very proud 
 of the conquest of the giant. Quite different is the third, a Nereid, 
 described in the Metamorphoses of Ovid. She is a charming woman 
 inflamed with passion, who loves the beautiful Acis, and one day, 
 resting by his side, she is surprised by the uncouth giant, who, burn- 
 ing with jealousy, hurls a piece of rock at the poor Acis, which 
 crushes him in pieces. Galatea, however, in deadly anguish, escapes 
 the giant ; she throws herself into the sea, in order upon its bottom 
 to save herself in the house of her father Nereus." 
 
 "Now, see," said Raphael, as Tommaso Inghirami finished, "this 
 drawing. If I were a heathen, as you say, I would have preferred the 
 sensual, inordinate Galatea of Theocritus, or the self-conscious one of 
 Lucian, haughty and glad of her beauty ; I would have chosen one of 
 them for my representation. I chose the one of Ovid, because she 
 alone allows herself to be represented as pure and chaste, and, so to 
 say, with a soul within, with a- soul full of beautiful, ennobling, 
 human grief over her slain lover. This grief gives to her some- 
 thing sacred, glorious, chaste so, at least, I have thought and 
 willed. I have wished to represent an ideal beauty and an existence 
 of soul which, finally, I do not believe you will find with the 
 heathen ! " 
 
 "And that," put in Tommaso Inghirami, contemplating Raphael's 
 drawing, "have you accomplished in a masterly manner, friend 
 Raphael. This nude beauty, this unveiled, blooming young body, 
 with the noble head looking upward as if complaining, has gone be- 
 yond every conceivable desire, because you knew how to place in 
 her a soul ; and where a soul is, there is no more what our German 
 brother chides as paganism. Your works, Master Raphael Santi, 
 are like children's faces, which bear in their features, strangely 
 mingled and no more distinguishable, the physiognomies of the 
 father and mother. 
 
 "There look out of your works both paganism and Christianity; the 
 form-beauty of the one, the soul-beauty of the other, the depths of 
 soul which could not yet be given to the world without Christianity. 
 Fervor and dissolving in God's love, enthusiastic living beyond into 
 the other life, Giotto and Fra Angelico have already known how to 
 represent. You, however, have Understood that after which our art, 
 for a century perhaps, has already struggled, what our minds in our 
 free culture require, to find the free, beautiful form for the soul-life,
 
 148 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 and put to it, while you bring it into this form, that which made 
 tattered and distorted the true nature. And so you have, it seems 
 to me, through the blending of the heathen form and the Christian 
 ideal of our time, impressed upon it its highest seal." 
 
 "You praise me too much, Monsignore," said Raphael; "if it 
 were as you say, our German monk here would also be satisfied. 
 And still he quarrels with me ! " 
 
 Brother Martin stood silently absorbed in the contemplation of 
 the drawing of Galatea. 
 
 "I quarrel with you because," he now said, "in spite of all 
 this worthy bishop says about Christianity, you do not serve God. 
 There is nothing of doctrine in your works. Doctrine, however, is 
 our spirit-sun. What help is it to me that from this sun you let fall,, 
 perhaps, a little light upon your works, a little warmth, perhaps, 
 upon your forms. Paint the sun itself as it rises upon the world and 
 gives it light ! " 
 
 "The monks," answered Raphael, smiling, " have made too much 
 dust and ugly clouds before the sun ; one sees it no more." 
 
 "And if we poor, much-chided monks again removed this dust and 
 clouds, would you then paint it ? " asked Brother Martin, as if 
 low-spirited. 
 
 " Yes ; give to your doctrine, which is now nothing but the dress- 
 ing of thoughtless men, again its soul ; make of it the doctrine 
 of love, which reconciles and blends the human with the Divine, from 
 the oneness of the human with the Divine through love, and I will 
 paint for you pictures for this new doctrine. I will no more 
 paint for you merely the beautiful thought-world, but pictures 
 wherein earth and the other world shall meet : the Madonna who is 
 the woman and still also Heaven's queen ; the Transfiguration, 
 which, through the mortal body of Christ, lets his heavenly nature 
 shine through ; God the Father, himself a man like Jove, and yet 
 the eternal spirit of the world, the All-Merciful. Zeal and in- 
 clination for such figures shall not be wanting in me ; you only take 
 care that your sun, over which you have hung so many ' holy Pas- 
 sion week napkins, and Swiss kerchiefs of Veronica ' and other 
 patchwork become clean and bright, so that I can see it through 
 your doctrine." 
 
 "Then," said Brother Martin, smiling ironically, and still yet with 
 a sigh, " we must truly already take heart and see, let what will be,
 
 SISTINE MADONNA. (RAHIAEL.)
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 149 
 
 the patchwork torn away and clouds driven off which obscure the 
 sun from you." 
 
 "And so," interposed the Bishop of Ragusa, jestingly laying his 
 hand upon the shoulder of the monk, " will this our learned speech 
 have still the effect that you, my zealous brother, return into your 
 wrong-headed and strife-loving Germany, and there begin a great 
 cloud-chasing, a great dusting-off and cleaning-up in the church, 
 only therewith that Master Santi can paint here more pious and 
 mystical pictures ; and when you from the sun have torn away the 
 patchwork, and have again brought forth the Word of God pure, and 
 the world has taken a revolution to Christian and purified doctrine, 
 Master Santi will paint for you pictures such as the world has never 
 seen, this world illuminated by the world beyond ; the world be- 
 yond plastically become this ! That will indeed be very beautiful and 
 edifying ; still, I advise you in your church-cleansing not to whirl off 
 too much dust. You might get much to swallow much, even to 
 suffocation." 
 
 " You jest," responded Brother Martin, throwing his hands over his 
 breast, and directing his fiery eye upon Raphael. " To me, however, 
 comes in earnest the feeling that a pair of righteous men could lend 
 great service to the world of to-day. The world of to-day needs 
 men ; in truth it needs them ! " 
 
 Tommaso Inghirami listened no more to these excitedly uttered 
 words, even so little was he aware what feeling would be produced 
 by his jestingly outspoken words. For how the simple Brother 
 Martin, who stood before him there, would go home over the Alps 
 in order indeed to lend the world a " great service," he could not 
 foresee. He could not foresee how this service, the leading back of 
 the world to a deeper and more sincere laying hold upon the doc- 
 trine of Christianity, the whole revolution in feeling and thought so 
 soon following even in Italy upon that "service," would work upon 
 the great Master von Urbino, whose turning to the visionary, to the 
 transfigurations, to works such as the Sistine Madonna, the Vision 
 of Ezekiel, the Saint Cecilia, the Spasimo di Sicilia, and the like, 
 yet indeed stand in inner connection with the new world-current into 
 which Luther led the souls of men ; with those analogies of Protest- 
 antism which, at the same time, led Sannazar to write a poem "de 
 partu virginis" and the most celebrated humanists, as Bembo, Sadolet, 
 Contarini, a brotherhood, to compose an "Oratorio del divono amore" 
 to which, perhaps, Raphael himself also belonged ; so that one could
 
 150 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 say Raphael had been a pagan, and had become a Protestant 
 Christian. 
 
 Tommaso Inghirami, as has been said, had heard nothing more of 
 Brother Martin's answer ; he had just turned around and taken his 
 gold-adorned hat to depart, when Margarita stepped into the studio, 
 accompanied by a young maiden of foreign appearance, who carried 
 a paper in her hand. 
 
 " The maiden will not allow herself restrained from intruding upon 
 you, signori," said the 'Fornarina;' " she asserts she has something 
 important to communicate to one of the gentlemen, and to deliver to 
 him a letter which admits of no delay." 
 
 " Pardon that I intrude," said, in her German-accented Italian, the 
 apparently heated and excited young maiden, who was no other than 
 Irmgard ; "I have a letter for Brother Martin. You must be he," 
 she added, approaching nearer the latter. " Here is the letter ; it 
 comes from Count Egino von Ortenburg ; it was brought by his 
 order to his lodgings, and was to be quickly forwarded. That 
 appears alarming to me ; the letter certainly contains nothing good ; 
 I pray you read it, read it ! " 
 
 Brother Martin looked at the young maiden a little surprised that 
 she held out to him the writing in such urgent haste ; then he took 
 the letter, opened and read it hastily, while Irmgard anxiously 
 studied his features. 
 
 "There is strange information in the letter," said Brother Martin. 
 " Count Egino has encountered a wonderful adventure ; he has with- 
 drawn himself into a cloister, and in its neighborhood has found 
 well, we will say, he has unexpectedly found a great treasure, a 
 royal jewel of the olden time, of which men have ceased to think. I 
 shall come at once to see him, to pay my respects to this treas- 
 ure, and to him with it." 
 
 "And that that is all?" said Irmgard, gasping between the 
 words. 
 
 "All ? Is it not enough ?" 
 
 " I only thought there might some accident have befallen him, 
 he might have fallen among wicked men." 
 
 " Nothing of that, my child, is in the letter, and you may calm 
 yourself," answered Brother Martin. " How was it possible to you 
 to find me out here ? " 
 
 " In your cloister they told me you had gone to the library of the 
 Pope ; and when I searched this out, and knocked at the door, a
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 151 
 
 servant opened it for me who told me that a German brother such as 
 I was seeking had gone out with the Bishop von Ragusa, and 
 that the latter had left word he was going to Master Raphael Santi. 
 So I inquired my way here." 
 
 " You have also made your way through difficulties in your care 
 for this young Count von Ortenburg," replied Brother Martin, look- 
 ing fixedly upon her. 
 
 While she blushed more deeply at this glance, Raphael laid his 
 hand gently upon her shoulder. 
 
 "And since you have now become calm, young lady, let me look 
 once into your eyes ! " 
 
 "What do you wish of me?" answered Irmgard, almost harshly, 
 turning toward the painter, who was viewing her sharply, and, as it 
 seemed to her, impertinently. 
 
 "You must know," replied Raphael, smiling, "you have here 
 fallen into something like a lion's den, out of which a creature 
 formed by nature as you are, and who has such a countenance as 
 yours, will not escape again so quickly. I will send away these two 
 worthy gentlemen and keep you with me.". 
 
 Irmgard stepped back alarmed, and exclaimed angrily :- 
 
 "That is a wicked jest which you allow yourself." 
 
 "No jest, for I wish to draw your portrait! Where could I find 
 again, indeed, such a graceful copy of blonde German maidenhood ? 
 Are you now appeased ? " 
 
 " I have not come to have my portrait drawn ! " answered Irmgard 
 proudly, and with irritation. 
 
 Raphael and Tommaso Inghirami laughed. 
 
 "And why not ?" exclaimed the latter. "You must know, proud 
 and coy maiden, that princesses and cardinals are vain of becoming 
 drawn by this master, and of being immortalized upon his tablets." 
 
 "And I," said Irmgard, "am much too little vain to wish to take 
 a place among such distinguished persons, even upon the tablets of 
 this master." 
 
 "You will not do it in truth," exclaimed Raphael, "even if I 
 tell you that I wish it ? that I will be thankful for it ? that I will 
 reward you for it with whatever you ask ? " 
 
 Irmgard shook her head very energetically, and turning to Brother 
 Martin, said : 
 
 "I know the way to the Count von Ortenburg. If you wish to be 
 Jed by me, worthy brother, I am ready ; I would like to go."
 
 152 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 "You will go," asked Tommaso Inghirami, " before you have even 
 looked around in this room, have even thrown one glance upon these 
 drawings, upon these works ? Do you know in what man's house 
 you are ? " 
 
 "In a painter's house, and it is not the first time," answered 
 Irmgard, coolly. "At home, in Ulm, such a painter was our neigh- 
 bor. I saw very often his productions with the colors and the 
 brushes, when he painted saints for the stations in the church, or 
 white horses and golden lions for the signs for inns." 
 
 The three men laughed heartily. 
 
 "You see how inexorable she is, and you must let her go now 
 with me," said Brother Martin. 
 
 Then he took leave of the bishop, and with a warm pressure of the 
 the hand also of the master, and departed with the young maiden,, 
 who undertook his guidance. 
 
 "Now you see the artist's reward, Monsignore Phadra," exclaimed 
 Raphael, when they had gone out, sighing audibly. " To this monk 
 all my work is a vexation, because I do not paint in an orthodox 
 style; and this maid throws me in with her neighbor, who paints 
 sign-boards for inns ! Is it not discouraging ? Truly I will beg of 
 you to go to our Holy Father and ask him whether there is anywhere 
 in the neighborhood of Ragusa a bishopric with which he could 
 provide for me ! " 
 
 " Why not ? " answered Monsignore Phadra ; " a man such as you 
 deserves not only a bishopric, but even a cardinal's hat." 
 
 "I am satisfied with less," responded the painter, smiling; "and 
 if you obtain it for me, I will turn over to you as a reward the first 
 beautiful work of art which I discover in our excavations." 
 
 "That would be a transaction ! " interposed Inghirami, laughing ; 
 "some beautiful Venus, Diana, or Leda for a cardinal's hat." 
 
 " I am in earnest," continued Raphael, likewise smiling. " I shall 
 in a few days have excavations begun in a yet unsearched place, and 
 hope to find there wonderful things." 
 
 " Ah ! remain in your place of work, Master," said the bishop, pre- 
 paring to leave; "and even if it were only sign-boards which you 
 painted, you would be happier there than if you should go about in 
 a violet or red coat and do nothing. There is no more bitter labor 
 than enjoyment which becomes labor. Besides, you must hold your 
 brush in readiness to redeem your word to this German monk ; for 
 perhaps, like a wonder-worker, will he redeem his. The man has in.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 153 
 
 his eye something which reminds me of the great Girolamo, only it is 
 brighter ; one does not feel afraid in its presence. And now fare- 
 well, dear Master. Have you heard the latest court news that 
 Fabricio Colonna, the brave commander-in-chief, who was once Al- 
 fonso von Ferrara's prisoner of war, and in this imprisonment became 
 his friend, has effected a peace between Alfonso and Our Holiness, 
 and Alfonso will appear at our court ? " 
 
 " I heard it, and rejoice to be able to greet the art-loving duke 
 here and do homage to him ! Perhaps, also, is Messer Ludovico 
 Ariosto in his retinue." 
 
 " Hardly," interposed the bishop, smiling. " Messer Ludovico has 
 once succeeded in beholding the countenance of our Holy Father 
 and does not desire it the second time ! " 
 
 " Indeed ; I forgot that," replied Raphael, lightly, laughing aloud. 
 
 " Now good-bye, beloved friend," said Monsignore Phadra, and he 
 reached Raphael his hand as leave-taking.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BROTHER MARTIN'S RESOLUTION. 
 
 HALF-HOUR later, Irmgard and Brother Martin had 
 reached the heights of the Aventine. When they had 
 arrived in front of the Cloister von Santa Sabina, Irm- 
 gard, wh'o was to-day in her maiden-garb, had to remain 
 behind, and Brother Martin reached to her the hand while he 
 said : 
 
 " And now I thank you, my friendly guide. There is the door of 
 the cloister, and I need you no more." 
 
 Irmgard, however, remained where she stood. 
 
 " I will first see whether or not they let you in," she replied. 
 
 Brother Martin rang at the cloister door; a slide opened on the in- 
 side, and the countenance of the porter became visible. When the 
 latter espied a monk, without questioning he opened one shutter of 
 the door. Irmgard was just ready to turn and go, since she saw 
 Brother Martin step over the threshold, when she heard him utter a 
 few loud words, and immediately perceived, as she stepped back, 
 how the shutter of the door just now opened for him was again 
 so quickly shut upon him that he was plainly pushed out. 
 
 She hastened to him. 
 
 Brother Martin exclaimed, coming to meet her : 
 
 "But Count Egino is no longer in this cloister." 
 
 " He is no longer there ? " 
 
 " No ; the brother porter says he has already departed this morn- 
 ing." 
 
 "That cannot be." 
 
 " The brother says so, and pushed me out rather crossly." 
 
 "Count Egino himself sent this letter to his residence, wherein he 
 has invited you, as you say, to come to him at this hour here, in 
 this cloister; so it stands in the letter?" 
 
 " In the letter it stands so." 
 
 '54
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 155 
 
 "And now should he be gone? Impossible." 
 
 " Who knows what has caused him to do it ! " responded Brother 
 Martin. 
 
 "It is certainly, certainly not so, ' remarked Irmgard, disquieted. 
 " Oh ! I beg you ask this porter again, once more. Say to him " 
 
 "My child," replied the German monk, "I have not the least 
 desire to do that ; this brother porter is brutal as Cerberus, and 
 gave his information with an irritated definiteness." 
 
 "Then there is nothing left us but that we hasten to the dwelling 
 of the count, to seek him there. I beg of you to go down there with 
 me ; it is on your way." 
 
 "I will go down with you," answered Brother Martin, "just for 
 the purpose of seeing you quieted, for it is evident that you have 
 a needless anxiety about him." 
 
 " I have an anxiety about him, and I have grounds for this anx- 
 iety ; for, to confess to you but come, let us hasten." 
 
 Irmgard stepped quickly forward, and in going she confessed to 
 the young monk with her, who had on the way hither already com- 
 pletely won Irmgard's confidence, exactly what had led Egino into 
 the cloister, and what dangers might threaten him there in case he 
 should fall into the hands of the Savelli. 
 
 Brother Martin had listened to her highly perplexed. Excited, he 
 exclaimed : 
 
 "That is a very wonderful story which you relate to me. In the 
 letter of the young count, all that is only indicated with some 
 mysterious words, which I now understand ; but you yourself, how 
 is it you know all that so exactly ? " 
 
 Blushing, Irmgard also gave* answer to that : how Egino had found 
 them and received them here in this strange land as fellow-country- 
 men ; how he finally let her entirely into his secret ; indeed, less, she 
 added, blushing again, out of confidence in her and in the supposi- 
 tion that she could be useful to him and help him, than because he 
 had the need to utter what was passing in him and so oppressed 
 him. 
 
 Brother Martin nodded. 
 
 " It may be so. It is also good, my child, that you so comprehend 
 it ; you may also yet be able to help and be useful to him in his con- 
 dition if he should really be fallen into danger and embarrassment, 
 which does not now seem to me improbable. He has even played 
 with danger ; the Italian cunning is capable of much of which one
 
 i 5 6 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 of us would not think ; and that Brother Cerberus appeared exactly 
 as if he gave his information about Count Egino with a bad, though 
 quiet conscience, as Saint Thomas Aquinas says. God shows his 
 power most willingly through a weak vessel, and so we will hope 
 that we can do something to rescue this poor" youth out of the 
 danger into which he may have fallen, if he has acted without 
 foresight as a right unreflecting young blood. Yet let care go, so 
 long as we have hope to find him again. Perhaps he will come 
 forward, well preserved, to meet us on the threshold of his dwell- 
 ing, in a few minutes." 
 
 They finally reached the lodgings ; but Brother Martin's hope was 
 not to be realized. They heard some one ascending the stairway to 
 Egino's chambers, a sound of voices in conversation above, and soon 
 saw upon the landing the faithful Gotz standing with a stranger, 
 to whom with great effort he sought to make himself intelligible in 
 his broken Italian. Irmgard knew the stranger ; she had seen him 
 out in the villa with the " parva domus." It was Signer Callisto 
 Minucci. 
 
 " The gentleman asked for the count," exclaimed the servant 
 in German, when he caught sight of Irmgard. "I cannot understand 
 him ; see if you will get on better with him. He appears to be 
 in distress about my master." 
 
 Irmgard addressed Minucci in Italian. The latter answered : 
 
 " I see that you can serve as interpreter, and that happens 
 fortunately. I would like to speak with the Count Ortenburg, 
 whose servant, however, says to me his master is not at home, 
 and that he is in the cloister Santa Sabina ; but I cannot under- 
 stand what in all the world can have led him thither." 
 
 " So the young man is, in truth, not here ? " said Brother Martin. 
 
 "You see," said Irmgard, "I had only too much right to be 
 alarmed. Let us walk into the gentleman's room, Gotz," she then 
 turned to the servant, "that we may be able to talk^at leisure about 
 what to do now." 
 
 Gotz opened the sitting-room of his master before them, and 
 all four entered. 
 
 Signer Callisto dropped upon a chair, and turning to Irmgard, 
 he said : 
 
 " You are the young German maiden whom the count brought to 
 my wife. And you?" he added, looking at Brother Martin. 
 
 "A German monk, who has come with me on account of anxiety
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 157 
 
 about the count, whose friend he is," replied Irmgard, quickly inter- 
 posing. " I pray you tell us what brought you here, for you see we 
 are troubled about the fate of the count." 
 
 " So am I," replied Signor Callisto ; " uneasiness about him has 
 brought me here. You must know that Count Egino, a short time 
 since, accompanied me to serve as witness at a marriage " 
 
 " Oh ! we know that, signer, we know that ; I pray you go on," 
 said Irmgard, interrupting him. 
 
 " Well, then, you will comprehend my uneasiness," continued Sig- 
 nor Callisto, "when I tell you that this morning I saw suddenly 
 appear at my villa, out yonder, no less a personage than the Duke of 
 Aricia. He stopped on horseback at the steps which lead up to my 
 residence out of the garden." 
 
 "'Signor Minucci,' he said, when I appeared at his call above 
 him, on the terrace, 'only stay up there, and do not invite me to dis- 
 mount and walk into your dwelling, for I have not the time for that, 
 because I am on my way to the Prima Porta. In passing by your 
 villa a thought struck me, which caused me thus to startle you from 
 your work. Tell me, then, who was the young man recently accom- 
 panying you at the marriage of my Luca, you know whom you 
 introduced as your pupil ? ' 
 
 " I communicated to him," continued Signor Callisto in his narra- 
 tion, " the desired information. He inquired then about his native 
 place, about the relations of the young man, about the standing of 
 his house in Germany, about their possessions and influence. When 
 I had given to all this such an answer as I was able, I asked him : 
 ' And what interest does Your Excellency take in all this ? ' 
 
 " ' Only an accidental and quite superficial one, my dearest Signor 
 Legista,' responded the duke. 'The young man is in the cloister 
 of the Dominicans, with my pious neighbors of the Aventine, and 
 has requested to practice exercises there. The good monks, how- 
 ever, have not discovered much piety in him, and do not know 
 exactly what to do with him ; whether it is more advisable to attack 
 his heretical tendencies with their moral thumb-screws, or his body 
 with their iron ones or to let him run. The prior has accidentally 
 communicated that to me this morning in a conversation ; and since 
 I, without that, was passing by your residence here, I promised him 
 to obtain from you information concerning the German youth. I 
 thank you for this, Signor Minucci, and commend you to the pro- 
 tection of the Madonna. Good-bye ! You see if I do not now give
 
 158 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 rein to my horse, turning like a top here, he will tramp up the sod 
 and Donna Ottavia's flower-beds ; besides, my people await me out 
 there on the street.' 
 
 "With a wave of the hand the duke rode away, as if he were de- 
 sirous to avoid a further conversation. 
 
 " He left me so much the more uneasy," continued Signer 
 Callisto, "because I could not deceive myself into believing that he 
 would have come into my villa without quite a different interest in 
 our young friend, and that the secretiveness with which he denied it, 
 and represented himself as merely the messenger of the monks, 
 could betoken nothing good." 
 
 The narration of the lawyer could only increase the anxiety of 
 Egino's assembled friends to the most painful height. They con- 
 versed and deliberated a long time about what would be best to do, 
 and each took upon himself to follow up most zealously the means 
 and ways by which he would be in a situation to find out what had 
 become of Egino. Signer Callisto, who knew the' body-servants of 
 both Savelli, of the father as well as of the son, and besides these 
 Sor Antonio and Sor Giovanni Battista, still other dependents of the 
 house, would seek to get something out of them. Irmgard should 
 take Gotz with her as a protection, and try to find out in the neigh- 
 borhood of Santa Sabina whether any one had seen Egino leaving 
 the cloister. Brother Martin should, if possible, through his order- 
 brethren of Santa Maria del Popolo, obtain information concerning 
 the monks of St. Dominicus. Also, so soon as they should have 
 news of Egino, they would turn to Father Anselmo and beg his 
 intercession with the Pope : for that, however, they of course 
 needed beforehand more definite points of information about Egino's 
 fate. If they should wish to present a request to this exalted per- 
 sonage, they must be able to carry something definite and reliably 
 positive. They determined on the next day, at the same hour, to 
 come here again to Egino's dwelling, in order to report what they 
 had accomplished. 
 
 Irmgard was so entirely unnerved and thrown out of balance that 
 she had taken very little part in this whole conversation. She had 
 only looked with her great frightened eyes from one speaker to the 
 other. 
 
 The men left. Gotz accompanied them out, and then hastened 
 to his room, to make ready to go out as a companion of Irmgard. 
 The latter had remained sitting still and unmoved in her place ; she
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 159 
 
 stared with ashen face upon the mats which covered the floor at her 
 feet. 
 
 The door opened again, and Brother Martin came forward, having 
 turned ^back once more. He came quickly to her, and laying his 
 hand upon her shoulder, he said : 
 
 "Irmgard, poor child, I saw how troubled you are " 
 
 " Have I not every cause to be ? " she exclaimed, suddenly burst- 
 ing into tears ; "was it not I who gave him the advice ? " 
 
 " Console yourself ; what depends upon your advice, upon the 
 advice of a girl, of a child ? The count must have known what he 
 did : console yourself ; commit it to God, who watches over us all, 
 and trust that we shall find him again. Signor Callisto said just 
 now, as we were stepping out on the street, that he is invited to 
 a feast at which the Duke of Aricia will take part. He can intro- 
 duce me there ; and I, although it will be little appropriate for one 
 of my cloth to be seen there, will, nevertheless, go. It is, indeed, not 
 contrary to the custom here, that a monk, a priest, appear at the 
 luxurious feasts of the reveling children of the world. I will go for 
 the sake of the missing friend, and a little, also, for your sake, 
 because I desire to see you quieted, Irmgard." 
 
 "Oh! how good you are, Brother Martin," broke in Irmgard. 
 "Count Egino has not celebrated in vain your noble spirit." 
 
 " Has he ? " replied Brother Martin, smiling. " I shall, alas ! not 
 be able to reward him to-day ; but, on the contrary, I shall be obliged 
 to say of him a good deal that is bad " 
 
 " Bad ? You ? Wherefore ? " 
 
 " Don't you understand ? Upon that rests my plan. Did I not 
 say to you the Duke of Aricia will come to the feast ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; and will you say to him something bad of Count 
 Egino? Oh! I understand, you are here as his opponent; you 
 carry on against him a contest at the court of justice " 
 
 "So it is," interposed Brother Martin, "just that. I will seek to 
 approach this duke ; I will say to him that I have learned how he 
 was asking information about my antagonist ; I will make it count 
 that I am his countryman and his opponent. Do you not believe 
 the duke will then see in me a man toward whom he need not be on 
 his guard ? that I will, at least, entrap him into indicating what has 
 become of Egino ? Besides, in the excitement of such a feast, when 
 wine opens the heart and makes the lips voluble, it must be very
 
 i6o LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 imskillfully managed by me, or I must have great ill luck, if I do not 
 succeed." 
 
 " Oh ! certainly, certainly," exclaimed Irmgard, the color com- 
 ing again to her cheeks with hope and joy. "You have foynd out 
 the best way, and that you will go in it is so much the more noble 
 in you, because it will be hard for you to go in a way costing you 
 cunning and dissimulation." 
 
 "You are right," responded Brother Martin; "but we cannot do 
 otherwise. I console myself, when I commit such a sin of necessity, 
 through the likeness of the Master, which allows me even to work 
 on Sunday if I do it to save the poor animal fallen into the ditch ; 
 and through that other which permits me to take the ears of corn 
 of my neighbor if I am hungered. And so God protect you, my 
 dear countrywoman. I hope to be able soon to bring" you con- 
 solation." 
 
 He gave her his hand, and departed ; immediately afterward Gotz 
 came to accompany Irmgard.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CINQUE CENTO. 
 
 dando 11011 deficit; umiin 
 Hoc sat habet, si se scit retinere sibi. 
 
 J. C. SCALIGER, about Augustin Chigi. 
 
 HE feast to which Callisto promised to conduct Brother 
 Martin took place in a house which lay on the other side 
 of the Tiber, and not far from the Cloister von Sant Onu- 
 phrio, about where, at present, along the Strasse Longara, 
 the Botanical Gardens spread out at the foot of Monte Janiculo, 
 shaded by the precipitous, wooded bluff of the latter. 
 
 The house was not large, and although it had a portal adorned 
 with an old coat-of-arms, was scarcely to be called by the name of a 
 palace, to which the coat-of-arms and portal formerly gave a house 
 the right. It stood alone : high walls separated its surroundings 
 right and left from the street, and green treetops extending above 
 these walls showed that it lay upon an extensive garden ; and, in- 
 deed, this garden was its chief distinction. 
 
 One passed through the portal into a stair-cased hall, and from 
 the first landing of the broad stairway leading upward in the back- 
 ground of this hall, into a dimly lighted vestibule. From this, one 
 entered into a great festal parlor, with paneled, artistic ceiling of 
 wood and walls which showed mythological designs painted a tem- 
 pera. Out of this, one stepped into a garden ; next upon a broad, 
 marble-paved terrace, upon which benches and tables along the wall 
 of the house invited to sit down ; while upon a balustade inclosing 
 the garden, and sustained by a pillared elevation, were displayed 
 beautifully chiseled busts of celebrated men of antiquity and of 
 Roman emperors, with whose names, such as those of Marcus Aure- 
 lius, of Trajan, of Antoninus Pius, and of Titus, are connected 
 thoughts of human culture. 
 
 161
 
 1 62 . LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 From the terrace led very broad, low steps, scarcely perceptible 
 to those going down into the carefully tended garden with its dark 
 evergreen hedge, upon whose background gleamed forth the white 
 statues of Mercury. A marble statue arose here at the end of every 
 sidewalk, an image of still and chaste beauty in the umbrageous, 
 luxurious world of plants. 
 
 Opposite to the terrace steps leading down into the garden, at the 
 end of the broad middle-walk, was presented a decorated wall higher 
 than a man's head, constructed in a semi-circle with a vase-crowned 
 balustrade above it. A round basin was half encircled by this wall, 
 and in it a fountain with distinct murmur threw a strong column of 
 water high up into the air. Right and left from the round basin of the 
 fountain led gently winding flights of steps up to a terrace lying 
 much higher than the first, of the same height as the ornamental 
 wall. Its breadth lost itself in the forest, which here arose on the 
 side of the mountain with a close undergrowth and magnificent cork 
 trees. 
 
 Right and left at the end of this terrace were two ornamental 
 structures, little halls or pavilions, open in front and supported by 
 pillars, with draperies of colored material, which when let down 
 formed the most secret hiding-places out of these little graceful 
 buildings. 
 
 The house belonged to the rich Messer Agostino Chigi, from 
 Sienna, as they said ; the richest merchant of Italy, who had removed 
 to Rome to carry on his extensive traffic. He was a friend of 
 Raphael and Michael Angelo and of many distinguished men. He 
 was the same Agostino Chigi for whom Baldassare Peruzzi built,, 
 farther down on the bank of the Tiber, the beautiful villa which the 
 Master von Urbino had mentioned in the conversation with Brother 
 Martin. Until its completion, Messer Agostino gave here his luxu- 
 rious and celebrated feasts, at which he knew how to bring together 
 what Rome possessed of the great names of prominent men and 
 women. These were feasts which united with their customs many 
 which, justified by the standards of the time, would to-day no more 
 be called the elegance of the gay enjoyment of life, but often licen- 
 tious indulgence and riotous wantonness. Rome did not possess 
 that which Florence and Naples possessed in their academies, those 
 central points for the nurture of the scientific and spiritual interests 
 of the time, and also of its thought-power ; but Agostino Chigi's 
 house presented something similar, only more unrestrained, more
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 163 
 
 according to the chance of who might be at home there when he 
 brought his guests together. 
 
 He gave his feast to-day as a kind of farewell for many of his 
 acquaintances whom the approach of the hot season drove away 
 from Rome to their seats in the mountains or on the seashore. 
 
 When Brother Martin, at the side of Callisto, entered the house, 
 and they had reached the already darkening anti-chamber filled with 
 servants, they found torches stuck upon high, bronze candelabra, of 
 which three were burning. This was a sign, as Callisto explained to 
 his companion, that three cardinals, or Roman princes, would honor 
 the feast with their presence. 
 
 A garland of flowers festooned the entrance-door of the festal-hall, 
 on whose posts sonnets were nailed, welcoming poetic greetings for 
 the guests ; other poems, brought by friends of the house, they found 
 fastened to the walls of the banquet-hall itself. In this latter 
 appeared a richly covered table, set with artistically wrought sets of 
 plate, flowers, and polished vases, rich silver mugs, and glittering 
 things of every kind in the condition it is wont to be when' just 
 left by the guests. The host had invited the nearest of his acquaint- 
 ances and friends to the meal ; the wider circle of them, however, to 
 which Callisto belonged, to the Conversazione. Therefore the 
 hall was already well-nigh deserted by all the guests ; the whole gay 
 crowd enlivened the terrace before it, the garden, and the higher 
 terrace in the rear of the garden. 
 
 A gay crowd it was indeed; gay through the rich, luxuriously 
 colored garb of the time, whose costume now began to supplant the 
 strongly defined mode of the past by a tendency to the fantastic, 
 which created the most various and the most picturesque garments. 
 It is often incomprehensible to us how those who wore these gar- 
 ments found the patience and the time to put on, fasten together, 
 and to carry, this constraining style, these slit and puffed waistcoats, 
 these rufHed linens, all these over-garments with flounces of lace and 
 ornaments of precious stones and pearls. Already were the bluntly 
 cut off shoes not left unslit, and without the lining of colored leather 
 or silk pushing through. The folded coat, with its broad, thrown- 
 back collar, was not without the addition of double sleeves hanging 
 free from the shoulder or the elbow. The great heavy hats were 
 not without feathers, clasps, and golden chains, which bore medall- 
 ions. 
 
 The women, whom Brother Martin perceived assembled in groups
 
 1 64 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 upon the terrace, wore the hair simply parted on top of the head and 
 bound behind under gold-adorned caps, or under hats ornamented 
 with feathers and pearls, after the style of the men's hats ; or else 
 hanging down free between the shoulders in wavy curls drawn to- 
 gether in a knot below. Over broad-folded, long garments, was 
 thrown the camom, a broad, loose-fitting garment, or the vesta, a 
 close-fitting jacket of light silken stuff, bordered with golden fringe 
 or broad guipure. For going out and traveling, the sbernia was. 
 thrown over these, made out of darker and heaver silk, edged with 
 fur, and provided with very long, wide-open sleeves. Besides all 
 this, there was a great predilection for ornament, consisting of rich 
 jewelry, which often hung down in the form of strings of precious, 
 stones or pearls ; with some ladies present, there was also displayed 
 a taste for the most wonderful gold embroidery, in the form of flowers,, 
 animals, and the signs of heaven. 
 
 When Brother Martin beheld the glittering appointments of this 
 house, the table furnished with such splendor in the elegant festal- 
 hall with its adornment of pictures, and then cast his eyes through 
 the open window-casements out upon the terrace, with the richly and 
 luxuriously clad women and men upon the background of a garden 
 laid out so charmingly and with so much noble and pure conception 
 of the beautiful, the whole made upon him the impression of an en- 
 chanting dream-world. It needed not the soft and melting tones of 
 music sounding above, and the sound of fine male voices, which let 
 itself be heard from one side of the terrace, in order to make this 
 impression more perfect. Such a world of ideal life in a surrounding 
 composed of purely artistic forms, upon which the splendor of an 
 evening sun poured in golden light from the dark-blue heaven, over 
 which vibrated the tones of a powerful and penetrating voice, now 
 swelling out, now softly dying away, all this was to the German 
 pilgrim, who at home had seen nothing much worthy of mention out- 
 side of the narrow cloister-cells and the not much larger bedrooms 
 and other chambers of the German dwellings or of the small castles, 
 a sight which filled him with astonishment. It also increased the 
 anxious timidity with which he now walked by Callisto's side among 
 all these strange men, who bore so much wealth, honor, or proud 
 name he the poor, nameless miner's son, in the white gown of the 
 hermit monk. 
 
 Callisto led him to the master of the house, a small, very mercurial 
 man, who was now standing talking vivaciously to a still younger and
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 165 
 
 handsomer man in the red robes of a cardinal. The latter leaned 
 indolently back upon the balustrade of the terrace. The cardinal 
 looked down haughtily and with wandering attention upon the monk, 
 while Callisto presented him to the master of the house. 
 
 " Messer Agostino," he said, "allow me to introduce to you a 
 guest who causes me with more assurance than if alone to enter 
 your noble house, the meeting-place of so many learned and distin- 
 guished men. For while I otherwise feel that I appear indeed poor 
 and ungifted here among so many rich and honorable guests, I know 
 that I bring you to-day something in the person of this friend, a 
 learned German, just so much versed in the writings of the Old World 
 as he is unversed, indeed, in the ways of the Roman world. I would 
 not, moreover, let him return home without having learned to know 
 you and your house, for then he would have failed 'to become ac- 
 quainted with the finest bit of the Roman world." 
 
 Messer Agostino Chigi, coming forward, reached Callisto and then 
 Brother Martin the hand, and, smiling, said to the latter : 
 
 " You are welcome, heartily welcome. What you, in any case, 
 have already learned to know of Rome, is the most eloquent of all 
 the procurators of the Rota ; only, Signer Callisto, you should not 
 go so far with your eloquence as to shame me, and to awaken ex- 
 pectations in your friend which my house can fulfill only when 
 honored with guests such as I am rejoiced to see with me to-day." 
 
 Messer Agostino at this made a slight bow to the cardinal, who 
 smilingly turning to Brother Martin, said : 
 
 " You see that in a good turn of speech, Messer Agostino comes 
 short of no procurator of the Rota." 
 
 "I see," replied Brother Martin, "that he is very kind to receive 
 the uninvited guest with so much good will." 
 
 Messer Agostino smiled at the foreign accent with which Brother 
 Martin spoke his Italian ; and while the cardinal again regarded the 
 monk with cold, haughty glance, Agostino said to Callisto : 
 
 " You must now, however, take it upon yourself to care for your 
 friend's comfort and refreshment, also his entertainment, and to 
 make him acquainted with men with whom he can wish to come in 
 contact." 
 
 Callisto bowed silently, and stepped back with his companion. 
 
 They went to take their places upon an unoccupied seat behind 
 a little table which was laden with wine, fruits, and loaves of bread. 
 The friendly reception of the host, and the noticing that many men
 
 1 66 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 in church garments and in the garb of the orders were in the com- 
 pany, had relieved Brother Martin's timidity; which had, indeed, been 
 quite uncalled for, as he saw from the unrestrained manner in which 
 everything was carried on, and in which every one moved about. 
 
 Callisto filled for him and for himself a pair of high beakers with 
 wine, and said : 
 
 " You will not be entirely without acquaintance in this company, 
 Brother Martin ; I see there now Raphael Santi and Monsignore 
 Phadra ; they are going up the steps yonder on one side of the 
 fountain." 
 
 "You are right," interposed Brother Martin; "but who is the tall 
 man near them, who ascends the steps with such heavy strides ? " 
 
 " Don't you know him ? Every child in Rome knows him, and 
 would know him even if he did not have this powerful frame, and the 
 ugly, broad nose which Torrigiani mashed for him when a boy. It is 
 the Florentine Buonarroti." 
 
 " If he did not have that dark hair, I would have accosted him as 
 a German," said Brother Martin. 
 
 "Of the German he has only the hard, stubborn head," Callisto 
 smilingly answered. " I wonder that he has come ; for although 
 Messer Agostino's friend, he is the most unsociable and most retired 
 nature of which you can conceive. That he goes about silent and alone 
 as a hangman, Raphael Santi indeed retorted upon him, when he 
 one day reproved the latter for always going about with a swarm of 
 followers, like the bargello, the chief of the bailiffs. But cast your 
 eyes upon the two men there, who are now passing diagonally over 
 the terrace entering into the garden." 
 
 "Who are they?" asked Brother Martin. 
 
 " The one in the robes of a prelate is Messer Pietro Bembo, a man 
 distinguished by fullness and amiability of spirit, and the most 
 elegant writer of our time; he belongs to the splendid Court von 
 Urbino, celebrated for so many great men. He has been led here, 
 they say, through the wish to win our Holy Father to the establish- 
 ment of a school of short-hand, since he is striving to revive anew 
 the art of short-hand writing, as Cicero already made use of it 
 in taking down his orations : in fact, though he may be here as 
 much for the sake of his lady-love, the charming Marosina, to 
 see her and induce her to follow him to Urbino. Have you not 
 heard of the book " Gli Ascolani" wherein he no less analytically 
 than elegantly discusses the nature of love, into which Madame
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 167 
 
 Marosina has so thoroughly initiated him perhaps, as the wicked 
 world says, also Madame Lucretia a little ? " 
 
 "I read," replied Brother Martin, shaking his head, "not the dia- 
 logues in which men of the church, as he evidently is from his dress, 
 speak of their love ! " 
 
 "Then you dare not read the wanton comedies which make the 
 other of the two men celebrated ; for he is also a man of the church, 
 as his dress indicates, and Bembo's friend ; an eloquent and very 
 witty man, Bernardo Dovizio, called Bibiena " 
 
 "You have not yet told me," interposed Brother Martin, "who is 
 the cardinal with whom Messer Agostino was conversing, and who 
 looked down upon us so proudly when we came up to them." 
 
 "That is Cardinal Rafael Riario ; a man of illustrious mental gifts, 
 as his stately and fine exterior evinces. He is from a distinguished 
 house, clever, cultivated, ambitious. There is nothing lacking to him 
 that should hinder his obtaining at some future time the triple 
 crown, unless, alas ! the reputation for better morals. They say he 
 has too much favor with the women, and too much zeal in seeking 
 their favor." 
 
 "He has a fine countenance," replied Brother Martin, "and yet 
 something which repels me. He brings over me a feeling like that 
 at the first sight of men with whom one shall meet later in life, and 
 then in close dispute " 
 
 Their conversation was interrupted by the loud laughing and chat- 
 ter of a group of women, young without exception, who were ap- 
 proaching them with an offensive and peculiar freedom of manner. 
 They were surrounding one of their number, who, for the amuse- 
 ment of the rest, was making very graceful movements with a strange 
 bit of clothing which she wore. It was a head-ornament of silk 
 gauze, fastened at one end to the girdle ; the beauty, however, was 
 throwing it around her head as if at different aims, now as a cap, 
 now as a veil, now as a covering for other parts of her person, and 
 appeared to be giving the others instructions in it amid laughter and 
 noise. Such were the conclusions drawn in regard to this dangerous 
 weapon of coquetry, which they called the candale, and which, as 
 Callisto understood from their talk, was of Venetian origin. Men 
 stepped up to the circle ; it was soon surrounded by spectators. 
 Cardinal Rafael Riario had also come forward to it ; but soon, as if 
 wearied with the play, he laid his hand upon the bare shoulder of 
 one of these women, the most beautiful and stately of them, and
 
 1 68 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 drawing her gently to himself, he stepped with her down the terrace. 
 He let his arm and hand rest upon her neck and shoulders, while he 
 walked along by her side. 
 
 " See how confidentially Cardinal Riario talks with that lady ! " 
 whispered Brother Martin, looking upon them in astonishment. "Is 
 she his sister ? " 
 
 " Sister ? " responded Callisto, smiling. " Good brother, what are 
 you thinking about ! It is Imperia, the most beautiful of the Roman 
 courtesans. See, they turn this way, and approach us again. You 
 can now see for yourself how noble and beautiful is this proud 
 woman's countenance." 
 
 " By all the saints, I see only that this is the most dreadful scandal 
 which has yet aroused me to revolt this behavior of a cardinal ! 
 And a courtesan, you say that beautiful woman is ? " 
 
 " Certainly as are the whole group of these ladies playing here 
 with the Venetian head-dress. Over the door of more than one of 
 them, you may read, ' Hones ta meretrix? This Imperia is for a 
 part of the Roman world what Aspasia was for a part of the 
 Athenian. Those others are as much like Lais, or Phryne, or 
 other celebrated courtesans of the Grecian world. They belong to 
 our customs ; they make, in part, our morals. They form a central 
 point of a part of our social life, and there are among them women of 
 good birth ; women who have every quality of mind and heart except 
 virtue. The beautiful Julia Farnese, the lady-love of our former 
 Pope, Alexander VI., who made her brother a cardinal in spite of his 
 wild life, was not much else. And still, that greatest of all sinners 
 had her painted as a Madonna, and himself kneeling at her feet. 
 You are horrified at this? You are right, Brother Martin; but 
 observe life as it is here, and then confess that such phenomena as 
 this condition of honorable courtesanship have their good and use. 
 We have thousands of men in different positions who, because they 
 belong to the church, are allowed to take no wife. We have thous- 
 ands of other men, scholars, artists, soldiers, whose occupations do 
 not allow them to establish a household with a wife of equal rank. 
 Shall they, on this account, be consigned to sink with their need of 
 love into the lowest and most common spheres, which are, alas ! not 
 wanting to us, and to which a countless mass of our population 
 belongs ? No, no ; the Grecian and the Roman courtesan is an 
 institution which represents a great advance out of crude immorality. 
 A broader and more wholesome advance would be for us to return to-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 169 
 
 something like the Roman legislation about marriage, when we 
 would have, besides the solemnly celebrated 'justce nuptial a 
 second form of contract recognized by state and church, which, con- 
 cluded under easier conditions, might also be allowed to those in the 
 service of the church. Then there would cease much of this which 
 shocks you and gives offense to every one, and there would not be so 
 many illegitimate and unfortunate men, who often descend from a 
 good relationship justified by fidelity and self-sacrifice for each other ; 
 but they have no right, because our legislation has a deficiency, or 
 our customs do not recognize this necessary institution. You 
 Germans have in your law the Matrimonium ad legem Salicam y 
 but only for princes. Let that be made a universal institution, and 
 the morality of the people would only win thereby. 
 
 "You comprehend all that very well as a jurist!" answered 
 Brother Martin, shaking his head. 
 
 "Would it not be well if we jurists, and not the church, should 
 control the state ? " remarked Callisto with a smile. 
 
 Brother Martin arose. 
 
 "Let us not contend over that," he said ; "only come away out of 
 the neighborhood of these laughing women, and the vicinity of this 
 cardinal, strolling at pleasure with his honorable courtesan, as you 
 call her. I cannot look upon them, or breathe the same air with 
 them." 
 
 " And yet there is no better place than this for viewing the com- 
 pany ; but as you will. It may also be time for us to call to mind the 
 aim of our being here, and look about us for the Duke of Aricia." 
 
 "Certainly; if he is not on the terrace, let us go down into the 
 garden." 
 
 They passed by the cardinal and Donna Imperia, in going to the 
 garden-steps, and Callisto said in passing : 
 
 "You are, however, still wrong, Brother Martin, not to look at 
 this maiden, or woman, as you please to call her. Look at her fea- 
 tures. You do not easily see a finer and more soulful face, or a 
 nobler form. She has also often been sung by our poets. One, in- 
 spired, celebrates the tasteful magnificence with which her dwelling 
 is adorned, and the splendor of the feasts she gives therein to her 
 friends. Still more, they magnify her knowledge, the abundance of 
 learned books which occupy a place near the fragrant ointment and 
 essences of her dressing-table, and the poems which she writes in 
 Italian, or Latin speech."
 
 i;o LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Brother Martin had for all this only a displeased shrug of the 
 shoulders, while he quickened his pace. Thus they reached the 
 garden below. The walks of the garden were also filled with guests, 
 who walked up and down, or sat under the statues of Mercury, upon 
 marble seats in the shade of the evergreen hedge-walls and the old 
 cypresses, and gayly entertained each other ; while the sun, sinking 
 by degrees behind the mountain ridges, threw here still bright beams 
 and golden glow upon the whole dazzling picture of this world, 
 though over other places a dim half-light already was spread. 
 
 Callisto asked one of those he met about the Duke of Aricia, and 
 received for answer that he had been seen at the end of a walk. 
 When Callisto and Brother Martin passed farther down the walk, 
 the former saw the Duke in animated conversation with a handsome, 
 dignified lady : she was one of those ladies whom Egino had seen 
 at the marriage of Corradina. 
 
 "The man with the nose of a hawk and the heavy, shaggy brows 
 is the Duke," said Callisto; "the lady who sits before him on 
 the bench is his daughter-in-law, Madame Cornelia Savelli, of the 
 house of Colonna Palliano." 
 
 " Will you present me to him ? " asked Brother Martin. 
 
 " Let us sit here and wait till this heated conversation now 
 occupying him is interrupted," responded Callisto, slowly walking 
 nearer him and taking his place upon a seat near the two talking 
 together. 
 
 Detached words of the interview forced their way to them, unin- 
 telligible to Brother Martin, with his feeble knowledge of the 
 speech. Callisto understood a single word ; still, if he had wished to 
 listen, he would soon have been disturbed, for a lively, restless little 
 man stepped up to them, reached Callisto his hand, and began with 
 great volubility a conversation with him. He appeared to be one of 
 that rabble in the great exchange of society who knows everybody, 
 takes an interest in everything, and who expressly fumes with 
 sympathy for persons and objects, a sympathy which then truly 
 is only smoke. 
 
 "You come late, late, Signor Legista," he said; "and where is 
 Donna Ottavia, your wife ? Have you not brought her along ? She 
 doesn't like large companies, I know, but to-day she should have 
 come ; for our noble host, Messer Agostino, this king of all mer- 
 chants, has prepared for us the most beautiful surprises. I was just 
 now over there in the forest, and threw a glance into the mysterious
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. i;r 
 
 tents, out of which some kind of a secret will come forth to meet us. 
 You see the curtained pavilions at the end of the terrace up there 
 but I will betray nothing of that which will surprise you ; you will 
 see it indeed, and then will you admire these magnificent little 
 kingdoms, which certainly rather go through the eye of the needle 
 than for a camel to come into heaven. Even the man most afraid 
 of his kind of any man in Rome has been decoyed here." 
 
 " You mean Buonarroti ? " 
 
 " Even him ; and what is still more, he has read aloud for us, at 
 the breaking up of the table, a sonnet, so well composed and fine,, 
 that I maintain one must admire him far more as a poet than as a 
 sculptor and painter ; for in both arts, you know, he is not quite 
 according to my taste." 
 
 "Not according to your taste, Master Sylvestro ? And what fault 
 do you find with his style ? " 
 
 "What do I find fault with? You see, Master Raphael Santi also 
 paints much incomprehensible and unsubstantial stuff. For example, 
 now, up there for our Father Julius, on the walls, he paints upon 
 one and the same surface all the apostles and fathers of the church 
 together, part in heaven, part on the earth, without one's knowing 
 wherefore one part of them are in heaven and the others still on 
 the earth. Opposite these, upon the other side, he paints all the 
 philosophers and thinkers meeting in one and the same hall ; and 
 now I pray you, Signer Minucci, is not that madness? Are there 
 men stupid enough to believe these people have all existed so in one 
 heap together ? How childish that is ! But the Master von Urbino 
 paints them at least pleasing, graceful ; every individual form is 
 beautiful. Does Buonarroti do that ? He only wishes to show that 
 he is a wizard in drawing. He laughed aloud at me grimly when I 
 told him that ; but am I not right ? Is it not mere foolishness with 
 which he fills out the Sistine Chapel, nothing but occurrences, and 
 forms, and stories, which never were and never will be, and, besides, 
 so wild and desolate that the looker on becomes afraid before this 
 world of giants ? ' Messer Michael Angelo Buonarroti,' I say to him, 
 'you are a man of so much insight, and throw away your time on the 
 representation of things in which no one believes any more, and 
 which, as you represent them, could also please no one. Why do 
 you do that ? Why do our artists always still represent pictures 
 and scenes out of the Christian mythology? or why have they in 
 more modern times gone over to that, since this Christian mythol-
 
 1/2 LUTHER 'IN ROME. 
 
 ogy finds no more believers ? or why also represent scenes of 
 heathen mythology, of which one believes still less ? If you paint 
 for me how Socrates or Phocion, these noble men, were compelled 
 to drink the poisoned cup, would that not be to me a more moving 
 picture than the wild, naked, mortal coils of your Last Judgment, 
 over which I laugh, because it belongs to the realm of fables ?" 
 
 Brother Martin, who had listened with ever-increasing astonish- 
 ment to the talkative man, interrupted him here, while he deliber- 
 ately arose before him with threatening, flaming eyes ; but restrain- 
 ing himself, and suddenly turning to Callisto, he said : 
 
 " Is this babbler all in earnest ? or does he wish to ridicule my 
 calling?" 
 
 Callisto laid his hand upon Brother Martin's arm, and drew him 
 again to his place. 
 
 "Do you not see, then, that such a design never entered Signer 
 Sylvestro's head ? " said Callisto, smiling. 
 
 " And you really think as you speak," continued Brother Martin 
 to the gentleman, who turned in surprise, now upon Callisto, now 
 upon the monk, "you have really thus relinquished all faith, all 
 fear " 
 
 "Faith!" Signor Sylvestro exclaimed, laughing aloud. "Good 
 brother, you are comical. I go to the confession and the Lord's 
 Supper, and take indulgences and order masses, as does every good 
 citizen and Christian. But if I pay for all that my good money, what 
 more do you then desire ? The church sells to me her wares ; I pay 
 for them in good coin now, do you also wish faith ? Has the mer- 
 chant who gives to me his wares and receives for them my gold, to 
 ask after my thoughts ? " 
 
 Brother Martin was dumbfounded. He looked with gloomy eyes 
 upon the man ; it was a relief to him when the latter, laughing, turned 
 away to accost some one going by. 
 
 "You are as if crushed, Brother Martin," said Callisto. 
 
 " That I am," he responded. " Do many men think as this one ? " 
 
 "Many," said Callisto. 
 
 "Your Master Santi, I observed, had only coolly turned away 
 from the church ; but this man has become her enemy ! " 
 
 "Oh no!" rejoined Callisto; "don't believe that. He submits to 
 her, as we all, indeed, must ; and since he submits to her, she lets him
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 173 
 
 go his way ! But let us think about our purpose. The duke arises 
 now ; let us step up to him." 
 
 The duke did get up, sure enough, but for Callisto to speak to 
 him remained impracticable ; for the lady, his daughter-in-law, who 
 had been sitting near him, arose at the same time, and seizing hold 
 of his arm, as if to hold him back, said in a louder tone than she had 
 hitherto employed, and eagerly : 
 
 " Your Excellency must tell me still more about this. You do not 
 escape so ! " 
 
 " I know nothing more, as I told you," replied the duke, " nothing 
 further than that Livio has had a violent and hostile encounter with 
 a strange man, a German, whom he discovered with her ; and that I 
 think Livio will now learn, when he must, that Corradina does not 
 love him, alone, but also carries in her heart another, who, without 
 our being aware of it, kept himself in her presence. Livio will now 
 let go his foolish plans upon Corradina and become reasonable. 
 You know that I, uneasy and concerned lest Livio have the design 
 of some deed of violence against Corradina, am staying in the castle 
 on the Ave'ntine, in nearness to her " 
 
 " I know that you remain in her vicinity, and certainly only to 
 protect her, truly ! " interposed Cornelia Savelli, the words a little 
 mockingly intonated. "For," she added, "since you out of fear 
 of Livio were prevailed upon to consent to the marriage, which was 
 yet planned by them only to play you a cross-stroke, it seems to me 
 you could no longer have other interest in the matter." 
 
 Without expressing himself in regard to it, the duke continued : 
 
 " I can only give the advice to you, Cornelia, now, since Livio must 
 be, at least, a little cooled from his misplaced passion, to do your 
 best to cure him entirely." 
 
 " I should have much to do indeed to heal all the misplaced 
 passions produced by Corradina," responded Cornelia, sarcastically, 
 in a tone of opposition. " So that is all you will confess to me ? " 
 
 "What shall I say more, Cornelia?" replied the duke, now also 
 with a wicked smile. " Corradina's German lover and his fate will 
 not interest you ; and since, as you say, it interests you so little 
 whether or not Livio, your husband, after this experience, can be 
 again won by you, we may as well let this conversation end. Give 
 me your arm ; the sun is set, and the coming night-air warns us to 
 withdraw ourselves to the terrace or into the house." 
 
 He reached her his arm. Since, however, the peculiar carefulness
 
 174 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 
 
 
 of the Romans against the influence of the evening air after the 
 setting of the sun had already led many of the guests the same 
 way, the Duke of Aricia could not pass Callisto without observing 
 him. He returned his salutation with a curt 
 
 " Ah ! Signor Legista bona sera it appears you are now also 
 giving instructions in theology, since I see you with a young monk, 
 as you not long since were with a student of law ! " 
 
 "I give instruction in everything, Your Excellency," responded 
 Callisto, unabashed ; " still, not yet in theology, but in Roman person- 
 ages, occupations, and customs. My companion, this young Augus- 
 tine brother, you must know, is a novice in all things, since he has 
 only a short time since come out of Germany. But since you have 
 reminded me of my former pupil, the jurist, now let me add that this 
 is even his opponent, in a most especial sense opponent in a law- 
 suit. He could also give you information about him which you 
 asked of me, and which I was in a condition to communicate only so 
 imperfectly : he could give it so much more reliably, as he who 
 contends with him here at the Rota, knows well his descent and 
 relationships." 
 
 The duke measured Brother Martin with a distrustful glance, and 
 then having turned very scornfully, he said to Callisto : 
 
 " So, so it is likely this is the German brother for whom the 
 young gentleman of whom I asked you had sent, probably to con- 
 clude with him a compromise in his suit ! Say to your new pupil, 
 then, Signor Minucci, that he has done well not to come and accept 
 a compromise. That German gentleman will, I fear, be hindered a 
 long time from prosecuting his suit energetically, and his opponent 
 will now have doubly favorable play. Felicissima notte, Signor 
 Minucci ! " 
 
 The duke passed on with a haughty nod of the head ; Madame 
 Cornelia swept past at his side. Callisto, a little put out, looked 
 after him, and then at Brother Martin. 
 
 "There is nothing to be done," he whispered; "the duke is 
 suspicious. " 
 
 "Indeed, he is a cunning fellow; my unfortunate countryman 
 must also have spoken of the fact that he expected me in his 
 cloister. One could hate him on account of his endless improvi- 
 dence. The poor Irmgard. She awaits comforting news from me 
 and I shall have none to bring her." 
 
 " And what evil fate may we not fear for poor Count Egino,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 175 
 
 from the scoffingly intonated- words of the duke ? " said Callisto. 
 
 "It is an unhappy story!" said Brother Martin. "Instead of 
 going to her with consolation and a good hope for him, we go with 
 doubled care. Can we go ? " 
 
 "Not well," replied Callisto; "you see they are all crowded to- 
 gether upon the terrace and in the festal-hall, where new refresh- 
 ments are being served ; they would scarcely let us through there 
 if we sh'ould wish to go now. Messer Agostino has still somewhere 
 in reserve a surprise for his guests, a spectacular display. It would 
 attract too much attention if we were to go ; and if this cunning 
 duke should see it he would certainly entertain the suspicion that 
 we came only for the purpose of approaching him. Therefore you 
 must still hold out awhile longer." 
 
 "Which will be hard enough for me ! " 
 
 "Why? Is not this society splendid, enlivened with the forms of 
 beautiful women and distinguished men ? Gayly and pleasingly the 
 company moves about in the forms of the finest pictures, and the 
 music, the surroundings, this festal-hall, this garden, does it not 
 form the most beautiful setting for a talented company ? Does it not 
 teach you to know the world, a world foreign to you?" 
 
 " The lesson which it gives to me," answered Brother Martin, 
 "presses a sting to my heart, as if a red-hot steel; and if it were 
 unknown to me it would be better for me. Will it ever be possible 
 to call back to the right path men who think as these do, and to 
 save their souls ? If they were only, as Master Raphael Santi, seek- 
 ing spirits ! But they are that no longer. The ' Christian mythol- 
 ogy ' or the heathen, it is all the same to them. They are no more 
 like the lukewarm, which are spit out of the mouth : their heart is 
 cold, cold as nothingness. They thus stand over the abyss, and the 
 voice of one who would snatch them back from the steep brink of 
 eternal destiny, would be as the voice of one crying in the wilder- 
 ness ! " 
 
 "With many of them, perhaps. Many others of them the voice 
 would call back, if it should be the right voice ! " 
 
 "You yourself?" here interposed Brother Martin, with a quick, 
 sharp look at Callisto's features. "Say now for yourself, what is 
 your creed?" 
 
 " My creed ? That is a question of conscience, good brother," 
 gave Callisto for answer. "I have no creed; but I have a view, a 
 philosophy, if you will ; and if it is not exactly a dogmatic creed, it is
 
 i/6 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 yet for me sufficiently a conviction to furnish me a good moral law 
 reaching out to all the relations of life. It is the philosophy of all 
 the enlightened minds of our time, the philosophy of Plato." 
 
 "Is it not sufficient for you, as for so many 'enlightened minds,' 
 to have the illusion that the philosophy of Plato is in you, without 
 your being able to give an account of what the philosophy of Plato 
 then is ? " 
 
 "No," replied Callisto ; "do not consider me so superficial. I 
 know well what of Plato, what of the notions of the Stoics, what also 
 of the Christian refining and deepening of pagan views, is in my 
 thought. Believe me, in spite of all the stagnation of the church, of 
 all the wantonness of morals, of all the crudeness of the passions, 
 and of the insolence of egotism, which we perceive in our time, there 
 still lies over its nobler spirits a very earnest, consecrated temper; a 
 longing after the Beautiful and a desire for the True, as, indeed, over 
 no earlier time. It is as if the eve of an event in the spiritual world 
 as of a coming dawn, as a still presentiment in the souls which are 
 listening whether or not through the tops of the cypresses under 
 which the quiet thinker rests, the meditating artist dreams the Mas- 
 ter will pass with a gentle murmuring. If you wish to find that out, 
 read the hymns like the meditative poem of Lorenzo de Medici, the 
 Magnificent, wherein he has his teacher in the Platonic philoso- 
 phy, Marsilius Ficinus, to represent the blending of this philosophy 
 with Christianity." 
 
 Brother Martin did not answer. He walked along by Callisto 
 looking upon the ground. They mounted the steps to the terrace, 
 where Callisto was accosted by one of his acquaintances, and became 
 engaged in a conversation that did not seem inclined to come quickly 
 to an end, since the acquaintance began to speak to Callisto about 
 legal affairs. 
 
 With gloomy eyes Brother Martin turned from them, and again 
 descended the steps into the garden. There he walked down the 
 broad, middle path to the fountain. It was well for him to be alone 
 for a time. It had become very oppressive to him ; he breathed 
 with difficulty. Indeed, the evening was very close, as if a storm 
 might be at hand ; clouds had collected in the sky, which continually 
 grew darker. On this account the twilight which had followed the 
 sunset had, with unusual suddenness, spread itself over the garden 
 with deep darkness. 
 
 Brother Martin came as far as the fountain ; he ascended the steps
 
 LUTHER IN ROME, 177 
 
 to the right of it, up to the higher terrace lying in the background 
 of the garden. He saw that some men were busy here setting out 
 and preparing some ,iron vessels, which looked like coal-pans, also 
 spreading carpets, and moving here and there low seats ; while 
 another brought a bundle of short spears, and then played with a 
 pair of fine wolf dogs, which followed him. 
 
 The German turned and threw back a glance upon the garden and 
 house ; the festal-hall began to glitter with lighting up, and to pour 
 out the glow of countless lights upon the terrace in front of the 
 house, upon the costumed forms enveloped in the manifold light- 
 effects from the brilliant illumination. 
 
 Brother Martin stared awhile on the spectacle below ; then came 
 to him the thought whether, if he would go straight on and pass into 
 the forest covering the steeply rising mountain-side behind him, he 
 might not soon reach the inclosing wall above, and somewhere in it 
 find a way of exit. He would give much to be able to slip away to 
 be alone with his thoughts. 
 
 He therefore left the terrace which he had mounted, and 
 clambered through the thicket behind it quickly upward, through 
 the underwood and under lofty trees high up. It was remarkably 
 lively in the woods ; forms, which as if fleeing from him, glided 
 through the bushes, dazzling white, and in fact naked forms, 
 two half-nude maidens they were, who now slipped before him around 
 a thicket, and laughed and whispered. 
 
 Astonished, he remained standing ; he rubbed his hand over 
 his face. He was certainly only in a dream ! 
 
 He then went farther, and again remained standing; he breathed 
 quickly ; his pulses began to beat wildly ; his breathing stopped, and 
 it was as if a swoon must come upon him the next minute. What 
 was that ? What did it mean ? What meant these forms which 
 now, a short distance below him, on the cliff, assembled from the 
 bushes on all sides, descending to the terrace a whole host, all 
 scarcely half-clothed, or naked in spite of a light, fluttering 
 drapery ? What would they do down there ? Why did they let 
 themselves down on the carpets, reclining one upon another, the 
 one in this, the other in that place, here singly, there in groups 
 of five or six ? And now, in truth, fires became kindled, which 
 flamed forth from the arranged fire-basins ; a sudden dazzling glow 
 coming forth as if by enchantment, in order to throw a. light
 
 i/8 LUTHER IN 
 
 upon these nude women, while a crashing hunter's fanfare sounded 
 out, and then passed off into a soft music. 
 
 So it was ; it was really so. A great commotion arose over there 
 in the festal-hall, as Brother Martin could perceive through the 
 lighted windows. All rushed out upon the terrace lying in front, 
 laughed, clapped their hands, let a hundred bravos peal forth. 
 
 " Brava, bravissima, Diana and her nymphs!" 
 
 " Montium cztstos, nemonimque, Virgo!" 
 
 " Diva triformis ! " 
 
 Brother Martin heard it. It was as if Signer Sylvestro cried it 
 out ; countless other cries followed. 
 
 The words gave him something like a key to what was transpiring 
 under his eyes. It was a representation of the hunting-camp of 
 Diana and her huntresses ; a living picture, as we would say, which 
 Messer Agostino Chigi had arranged, and which upon the height of 
 his terrace, with the background of the green bushy woods, with the 
 cleverly planned illumination from beyond, might be from below 
 picturesque and enchanting enough to behold. At any rate it was 
 received with loud rejoicing, and the enthusiasm increased as the 
 flames in the coal-pans began to beam forth in variously colored 
 fires, to flash up now purple, now violet, now green. 
 
 Seen from above, from Brother Martin's standpoint, the picture 
 of the goddess of the chase, with her nymphs, with her spears, 
 her dogs, this confusion of naked bodies and limbs, with every 
 colored drapery of light material between, was quite wanting in the 
 enchantment which it had for those standing below. There was 
 wanting the conception, as a whole, which only the right arrange- 
 ment, the right light could give. If it had not been for the notes of 
 the music, which for Brother Martin were something softening the 
 shock of the scene, something which, as it were, took away the 
 common reality, and lifted it out of the real life into the land of 
 dreams, he would not once have felt the gentlest excitement of the 
 senses ; he would simply have felt outraged and horrified. 
 
 And still, as it was, he felt outraged and horrified ; he stood and 
 looked staringly upon the whole picture before him there below : 
 this camp of Diana illuminated by every kind of dazzling and colored 
 lights, then the dark garden out of which the music resounded ; the 
 host of guests, who noisily crowded out from the house through the 
 garden, to observe the picture more closely in its individuality ; 
 the brilliantly lighted house, out of whose interior, as from a feast
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. . 179 
 
 of Sardanapalus, gleamed the splendor and wealth of the ornamental 
 furniture and the golden tableware of the richly dressed and luxu- 
 rious persons within. 
 
 He stood there and gazed down ; how long it continued, this 
 spectacle, he would not have known how to say. He observed, all 
 at once, a very suddenly occurring excitement in the camp of the 
 nymphs : they drew themselves together ; low cries became heard ; 
 some sprang up and drew what clothing they wore close around 
 them ; the others followed their example. There were drops of rain 
 falling, which, striking on the naked shoulders and backs, had so sud- 
 denly thrown a panic over this camp. The drops rustled now already 
 over Brother Martin's head in the leaves of the trees. Diana and 
 her nymphs fled before them, to the right and left, seeking shelter 
 in the two pavilions at the end of the terrace, and after a few 
 minutes had disappeared behind the curtain. 
 
 The thunder-storm, which the dark clouds rolling themselves 
 together had announced, seemed inclined to break out ; the thick, 
 down-showering drops were its first greeting. A whirlwind hurried 
 down from above over the mountain-side, twisting the tops of the 
 trees. Brother Martin slowly descended, to seek shelter in the house. 
 He came to the terrace below him, and passing diagonally over the 
 carpets lying there spread out, he suddenly stopped in its midst, in 
 order to look upon a contorted streak of lightning. He felt, at the 
 same time, the falling of the drops had ceased ; only a second wind- 
 gust came, and moved violently, right and left, the flashing, colored 
 flames in the coal-pans. 
 
 So he remained standing, his arms thrown over his breast, looking 
 up to heaven as if expecting a second flash of lightning would come 
 to inscribe its indentations upon the inky wall of the skies. 
 
 The lightning came ; it rent asunder suddenly and crashingly the 
 cloud-masses to the very earth, and a sullen thunder growled after it. 
 Brother Martin involuntarily stretched out his hand, as if in an -ebul- 
 lition of angry joy over this crash that he might have liked to hurl 
 down at his feet upon this world, as a terrifying call of God. 
 
 "Only see the monk up yonder," said one of the guests among 
 those upon the lower terrace at the house, turning back to another. 
 
 "Ah ! " the latter exclaimed, "how pale the wind throws over him 
 the blue flame of the coal-pans ! " 
 
 "And now, where the lightning flashes quickly over him, he 
 stands there like a threatening vision."
 
 i8o LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 "How threateningly he stretches out his hand against us!" 
 
 " Girolamo Savonarola, who comes back again in the fire ! " 
 exclaimed a third, smiling. 
 
 "To send his lightnings crashing into our feast." 
 
 "Not yet," remarked a voice in their vicinity it was that of 
 Signer Callisto; "this threatening form up there on the height, 
 which seems to you as a vision, is only a German monk, Brother 
 Martin Luther, from Wittenberg."
 
 TRANSFIGURATION. (RAPHAEL.)
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE HOUSE OF THE SAVELLI. 
 
 ET us turn now to Egino von Ortenburg, and look after the 
 fate that had befallen him, over which the Duke of 
 Aricia showed himself so silent even in the presence of 
 his daughter-in-law, and still more toward Callisto. 
 
 On the evening of the day on which Egino had spoken with 
 Corradina and had written that letter, which, as we have seen, did 
 not reach the hands of Brother Martin till the next day on the 
 evening of this day, Egino was in the garden of his cloister. 
 
 It was after the supper-time of the monks, who had already 
 betaken themselves to rest ; only out of a few cells still shimmered a 
 weak, reddish light. Perhaps it was the learned men of the 
 order, who were there remaining awake with their books, and 
 who preferred to the early time of rest the waking thought-life 
 in which they carried on their theological investigations. 
 
 Fra Eustachio had compared man to a tree. One could then 
 compare the thoughts in which they live to the leaves with 
 which the tree clothes itself. There lies in this picture a conso- 
 lation. If there should seize upon us a despair over the prodigious 
 heap of humanity whose whole mental life is wasted upon the untrue 
 and upon false systems, upon the suppositions of scholasticism, let 
 us remind ourselves that men are trees which must put out leaves, 
 common forest trees, which bear nothing but leaves, or needles like 
 the pine. Why do we struggle against it, if only the forest is green ? 
 if these leaves and needles are worth nothing ? if it is their lot in the 
 autumn to fall away and moulder ? And have they not, also, a value 
 as fertilizers of the ground for the coming race of trees, among 
 which are also even glorious fruit trees ? 
 
 The greatest quiet prevailed in the garden. Out of the broad 
 plain into which the Tiber threw itself southward after it had 
 mirrored the rock-wall of the Aventine, came the evening breeze
 
 1 82 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 rustling in the tops of the laurel trees of the cloister garden, and 
 whistling a low, mournful tone of complaint through the old 
 cypresses which stood along the wall. Crickets chirped ; now and 
 then a bell tolled or a clock struck in one of the many hundreds of 
 towers of the slumbering Eternal City. Otherwise, however, all was 
 silent, and the air so clear and still that one could perceive the 
 plash of the fountain which murmured in the - quadrangle of the 
 intersecting walks. One might believe when he raised his head 
 aloft to the innumerable stars which glittered in the dark but un- 
 clouded vault of the heavens, that he could hear the crackling of 
 these eternally twinkling and sparkling little beams of fire. 
 
 As upon the previous evening, the window-casement was open 
 upon the balcony of the Savelli Castle ; a light forced its way out 
 from the interior. 
 
 But Corradina did not, as upon yesterday evening, appear upon the 
 balcony. Egino gazed from his former place upon the basin of the 
 fountain across to the balcony, and did not grow weary of gazing. 
 The time went by ; Corradina did not appear. Instead of this, he 
 observed a few times a shadow gliding past the door, which momen- 
 tarily obstructed the light falling out upon the balcony; only a 
 moment, yet some one must be walking very rapidly through the 
 chamber. 
 
 Once he thought he heard thence the buzz of voices through the 
 night. Certainly he' had deceived himself. All sank again into the 
 former stillness. Then he perceived it again more distinctly; and 
 then was not that something like an angry outcry, or, indeed, a cry 
 for help ? 
 
 No ; all died out again. It was very foolish in him to disquiet him- 
 self about it. The shadow no longer glided as before past the case- 
 ment. Still, it drew Egino nearer. He passed along the cloister and 
 came to the wall door, which led into the garden lying beyond. It 
 was again locked as on yesterday. Again he looked scrutinizingly 
 at the wall, at the cypresses which stood beside it. 
 
 Why should these cypresses so stubbornly lay their boughs 
 against their trunks ! If they would only have stretched them out 
 as other trees stretch out their boughs from them, it might thus 
 have been easily possible on a strong branch to help one's self upon 
 the top of the wall. Egino racked his brain over the possibility of 
 such a thing ; for in spite of all the stillness now fallen upon the 
 castle over there, his uneasiness had not ceased.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 183 
 
 Suddenly he struck himself upon the brow, while he murmured : 
 
 " How stupid I am ! If no bough willingly extends itself over 
 the wall, one must compel one of them to bend over it." 
 
 He swung himself nimbly to the trunk which appeared to him 
 most suitable, and clambered up higher than the dividing wall ; which 
 was very easily done, on account of the innumerable boughs rising 
 from the trunk. Then he climbed up on one of those boughs till it 
 bent under the burden ; now he let himself sink down with it Thus 
 Egino succeeded in stretching one leg over the rim of the wall ; and 
 a slight swing now enabled him to sit astride upon the wall. 
 
 Egino looked down into the garden of the castle, which lay there 
 deserted as that of the cloister. When he let himself down, clutch- 
 ing with his hands to the rim of the wall, the height was no more so 
 considerable that one might not be able to spring upon the ground 
 without danger. To succeed in again returning over the wall was 
 truly more difficult ; there stood no helpful cypresses on the side of 
 the castle garden. 
 
 Although his standpoint now was much nearer the lighted cham- 
 ber with the open window-casement, yet every tone of the inter- 
 changing voices escaped him ; he only saw anew, from time to time, 
 the swiftly moving shadow gliding before the light in the interior 
 of the chamber. 
 
 He had so sat awhile when this shadow, again emerging, again 
 darkening the light falling upon the balcony, suddenly thickened 
 into a form, and stepped into the frame of the window-casing. 
 
 It was a masculine form, whether young or old, Egino could not 
 determine on account of the distance and the darkness, and it also 
 moved so quickly ; it stepped, evidently excited, to the balustrade of 
 the balcony, and exclaimed, turning back the head to the open 
 window : 
 
 " Your will ! a woman's will ! Have you seen the riders in the 
 arena hold out the paper-covered rings ? And how they shy before 
 this hindrance? As these jugglers go through such a paper ring, I 
 go through your will ! You will spend to-morrow night in Castle 
 Savello ! " 
 
 An oath thrown out upon the night followed these words, during 
 which the man reclined with his arms upon the balustrade of the 
 balcony. These words made Egino tremble in his very soul ; they 
 went through him like a sword. He knew the voice. He had al- 
 ready once heard it. But had he now the leisure to think about to
 
 1 84 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 whom it belonged ? Enough, the voice was angrily threatening,, 
 threatening violence that was enough; that tore him away up 
 there to the side of the woman exposed to violence. In the next 
 moment he had as noiselessly as possible slipped down from the 
 comb of the wall, and sped below along the wall in its shadow to the 
 terrace, to the open entrance to the stair-cased tower; then he 
 climbed the steps softly, ascending them two at a time, and stood 
 above upon the balcony. 
 
 The figure which was just now leaning upon the balustrade had 
 already disappeared. It had again stepped inside. This was fortu- 
 nate for Egino, since it otherwise must have perceived his movements 
 in the garden below. 
 
 It was also fortunate for him that the conversation within now be- 
 came so loudly heard that he, without any care, could step close to 
 the open door. 
 
 Here he must stop. The beating of his heart threatened to suffo- 
 cate him. He must take breath. He heard the following words 
 spoken by the voice of Corradina : 
 
 " Fool that you are ! Scorn, if you please, my will. You have 
 seen enough of it, I think, to fear it." 
 
 "What have I seen of it ? " exclaimed the voice of the man, mock- 
 ingly. 
 
 It was the voice of Livio Savelli. 
 
 " What have you seen of it ? Have not you, all of you, wrestled 
 with me for years sought to enslave me mistreated me as if I 
 were a bond-woman, in order that I, this wretched one, might be- 
 come the wife of your brother Luca ? Has my will triumphed, or 
 yours ? " 
 
 " Praise yourself for that ! If it had not been for my father, with 
 his idiotic passion for you " 
 
 "Well, then, has the idiotic passion of your father triumphed over 
 me, in spite of all its efforts to break me ? or has my resistance, my 
 will ? " 
 
 "Not your will has done it, but mine, which assisted you." 
 
 "Your assistance ! Would I have been obliged, then, to take hold 
 of the resolution to wed myself to the dead Luca, in order thereby, 
 once for all, to escape the wooings of your father? " 
 
 "My father would not have let you marry the dead Luca, of that 
 be sure, if I had not willed it, if you had not have had my deter- 
 mined help in this resolution."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 185 
 
 " It may be ; it was foolish in me to accept this assistance, and, at 
 the same time, suppose you were acting merely from pure unselfish- 
 ness ; merely from the consideration that your father must be hin- 
 dered from again taking a wife, and perhaps giving to you brothers, 
 with whom you would in the future have to share. I see now you 
 acted with secret cunning from a double selfishness " 
 
 "To be sure," laughed Livio, a little constrained. "I also acted in 
 the hope that an hour would come when I could make my service 
 count with you, Madame Corradina ; what do you wish ? We men 
 are all selfish, singly, doubly, or a hundred-fold. But never, I think, 
 has a woman reproached a man for being inflamed with love for her ; 
 for suing for her ; and because he wishes to possess her. Such self- 
 ishness lies now in human nature, as in the flame lies the nature 
 that what it has laid hold of it consumes ; or in the wave the nature 
 to flow downward, not upward." 
 
 "And as a flame will you consume me?" she interposed disdain- 
 fully. " I thank you ! " 
 
 " I will save you." 
 
 " Save ! And from whom ? " 
 
 " Can you hot tell yourself that ? " 
 
 "I do not know what threatened me, what forced me to fly to 
 you for assistance." 
 
 "You may pronounce that as haughtily as you will, it cannot, at 
 the same time, be well and peaceful for you around the heart." 
 
 " I assure you my heart will beat very quietly as soon as I see you 
 depart," replied Corradina. 
 
 " I receive the confession gladly that my presence makes it beat 
 uneasily," answered Livio, smiling. " It would also be strange if the 
 beating of mine did not affect you. But can you be sincere when 
 you say you fear nothing when you are alone in these broad, deso- 
 late, as if depopulated chambers of the old castle, where no one is 
 near you for your company, for your help, for your defense ? " 
 
 " I am not alone ; I have my servants." 
 
 " Whom my father, who wished also that you should pass the year 
 of your widowhood in this old, desolate castle, sought out for you 1 
 They would be a great assistance to you ! " 
 
 " Because your father sought them out for me ? " 
 
 "Corradina," now exclaimed Livio, with elevated voice, "you 
 cannot be so foolishly simple as you represent yourself. You know
 
 1 86 LUTHER IN ROME, 
 
 my father well enough to know what you have to fear from his pas- 
 sion for you." 
 
 "And what should I have to fear from him?" said Corradina, 
 with a voice wherein were mingled ridicule and contempt. 
 
 " Everything, fool, just everything ! And strange that you assume 
 the appearance of not fearing him ! If you did not fear him, why 
 did you seize upon the expedient, the cruel expedient, which would 
 erect an insurmountable barrier between you and his desire to make 
 you his wife ? Speak. Why did you declare, when Luca lay at 
 the point of death: 'You have wished to couple me with him for 
 the sake of my inheritance. I have resisted, because I despised, 
 him. Now, since he will die, let me wed him. I am then yours, 
 and my inheritance is yours ! ' Yes, why did you remain by that 
 resolution, when during the preparation for the wedding, which my 
 father would have opposed, but dare not from fear of me, Luca died 
 under our hands ? " 
 
 "You know; you have said why I did it. Because I would put an 
 end to your father's importunities. And also because I, above all, 
 would become the wife of no man no man on earth. I know, now 
 that I am Luca's widow, you will be careful that no other, no 
 stranger approach me with proposals and attentions, and thus draw 
 away from you what you have devoted to yourself for the future." 
 
 " It may be, it may be ; but upon one thing you have mis- 
 reckoned ? " 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 "When you believe a step which cuts off from my father the 
 possibility to make you his wife, will make an end to his passion. 
 Do you really cherish this illusion ? The love of a young man is 
 a glow which becomes extinguished when it finds no nourishment : 
 the love of an old man is a bit of the flame of hell, which consumes 
 and yet does not die ; which is never extinguished ; which no means 
 of force extirpates ; which fears no means of force ; which impels 
 to deeds of madness ! " 
 
 Corradina was silent. 
 
 The mute shrugging of the shoulders, the proud throwing back of 
 the head, with which she answered Livio's speech, Egino could not 
 perceive. 
 
 "You are alone," he added, "here in these desolate chambers, in 
 which one could kill you without your cry for help reaching any 
 mortal ear, or at most that of the servant, the old waiting-woman,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 187 
 
 who would run away at the first danger. Can it be your desire to 
 remain at this place?" 
 
 " It is," she answered quietly. 
 
 " Your desire," he continued vehemently, " to doze away here your 
 days in dreadful solitude ? to pine away in tediousness, friendless- 
 ness, melancholy? Impossible! You make no visits, you receive 
 very few of them ; the women who are related or otherwise bound to 
 our house you do not love, and they do not love you. You are too 
 beautiful and too proud not to be hated by them in secret. My wife, 
 who should be a sister to you well, we know her, truly! The con- 
 dition of widowhood binds you to the house. There are for you no 
 feasts, no gay society, no rides in the free air here, nothing, truly 
 nothing ! Can your books, your embroidery, compensate you for all 
 this ? It is impossible ! And it is your duty to tear yourself away 
 from this destiny. You will at the Castle Savello find everything 
 which can pleasantly shorten the time for you ; I will sacrifice my 
 whole life for you ; all my hours shall be devoted to you, to the effort 
 to make the time pass gently by as a happy dream to you. We will 
 invite our friends there ; we will give feasts ; we will chase the stag in 
 the Albanian Mountains ; hold regattas upon the Lake of Nemi " 
 
 " Cherish good neighborship with the Colonna at Palliano," threw 
 in Corradina, tauntingly. 
 
 " Also that, if you will," replied Livio, coolly. " My wife knows 
 she has lost the right to lift a protest against my inclinations. My 
 wife !" he added, with a peculiar tone of most bitter contempt. 
 
 " Your wife, Livio, was once good and noble ! She was a proud 
 nature, too proud for the impure. You have broken her pride, and 
 what she is now, that is, in short, your work then truly also that 
 of your customs, of the ways and dealings of you all. And do you 
 know I have taken her for an example for myself ? " 
 
 " You ? An example from her ? " 
 
 "Yes, from her, from her fate. I said to myself that I would not 
 let take place in me what has taken place in her. I will not. I will 
 not become the wife of one of these men of whom none of them all 
 is better than Livio. I will not let myself be mastered, be broken, 
 by any one of them, be led into the mire of their sins. I cannot live 
 with them ; I will not let the white garment of my soul be drawn 
 away, to be pulled into the naked orgies of their immoral thoughts, 
 the filth of their revelings. I have not your faith that I, when I 
 have spotted my soul with a sin, have only to call to a priest of the
 
 1 88 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 piazza, to read me a mass, or to hang somewhere a jewel before the 
 Madonna in Sant Agostino, or buy me an indulgence, .and all is 
 good ! Your God may thereby become reconciled to me, but I will 
 not thereby become reconciled to myself. And as I have not your 
 faith, I cannot have love for you. So my course was determined. It 
 was not merely the helplessness of the moment which impelled me ; 
 not merely to make it impossible for your father to force me to his 
 will. Let me once be the wife of the dead Luca, and his widow, 
 then I would be free from every wooing for all time. You will, from 
 now on, find means to keep at a distance from me the wooing of 
 every other man." 
 
 "That last you have now already thrown up to me the second 
 time, and so bitterly that it sounds as if it were not much after your 
 mind," remarked Livio, jeeringly. 
 
 "I throw up nothing to you except your avarice, the avarice with 
 which your father has taken possession of my inheritance ; with 
 which you became my ally against your father, in order thereby to 
 make impossible to him something which could at some time lessen 
 your estate." 
 
 " I became your ally, Corradina, because I saw it was your wish ; 
 and your wish goes beyond everything for me." 
 
 " My wish is that you leave me ; that you never again speak to 
 me as to-day ; that you leave me here to spin out, quietly and peace- 
 fully, the days of my year of widowhood. Do you hear, Livio ? That 
 is my wish. Let it be said to you, compel me not to withdraw myself 
 somewhere into a cloister ; cloisters are hateful to me. And now 
 go!" 
 
 " Not yet. A peace is concluded only when each surrenders some- 
 thing of his will. Submit your will to mine in that you follow me 
 to the Castle Savello ; then I will there submit mine to yours, and 
 not trouble you with my importunity." 
 
 " I would be very foolish if I believed you." 
 
 " I will swear it to you." 
 
 " I do not believe in your oaths." 
 
 "And also not in the danger which threatens you here? " 
 
 "I believe in the danger, and also in my power to defy it." 
 
 " Will, power, defiance, truly you show best that you are 
 nothing but a weak woman, even by the haughtiness with which you 
 throw about you these words f Suppose I now laugh at your defi- 
 ance, and break your will ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 189 
 
 He stepped up to her and stretched out his arm toward her. 
 
 "Do not touch me, or I shall call for help ! " 
 
 " Call ; you will see whether any one hears you ! " 
 
 He grasped her by the upper arm, but quick as lightning she tore 
 from him and fled out on the balcony. 
 
 " You can hasten down," exclaimed Livio, following her quickly, 
 "but the garden is locked." 
 
 " I can throw myself over the balustrade and kill myself," replied 
 Corradina, stepping to it; "perhaps I can also hurl you over." 
 
 "To that," he exclaimed angrily, stretching out his arm to enclasp 
 her and snatch her back, "to that your strength does not suffice ! " 
 
 "But mine does, I think!" here said Egino, emerging from the 
 shadow, and suddenly standing near Livio, whom he had as suddenly 
 seized by the neck with a powerful grasp, and snatched to himself. 
 
 "Count Ortenburg you!" exclaimed Corradina, frightened, 
 struggling for breath. "Is it you? Oh ! stop, stop!" 
 
 She uttered this exclamation because Egino now also, with his 
 other hand, seized Livio in the side, and lifted him up as a light 
 burden, as if he would, in truth, hurl him over the balustrade of 
 the balcony into the depth below. 
 
 "Stop, stop !" she exclaimed, laying hold of Egino's arm with both 
 hands, as if to tear him loose from his victim. " I command you to 
 do it ! " 
 
 " If you com " 
 
 Egino did not finish ; he suddenly drew himself together. Livio, 
 who kept his hands free, had won time after the first shock to grasp 
 after his dagger, and with it make a thrust. The blade now for the 
 first time became visible, gleaming in the light, when Livio drew it 
 out and again lifted it to inflict upon Egino a second stroke. 
 
 Egino evaded it, at the same time clutching after the balustrade 
 with his left hand, in order to support himself. In the same instant 
 Corradina was between him and Livio. 
 
 "Demon ! " gnashed Livio with his teeth. "Away from there, or 
 it strikes you with him." 
 
 Corradina held in her grasp the wrist of his uplifted hand; they 
 struggled together. 
 
 The young woman seemed, in this moment, to possess more 
 strength than the man ; the latter let the dagger fall, and with a 
 sudden turn ran from them. 
 
 " Save yourself, save yourself, Egino ! " exclaimed Corradina, now.
 
 190 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " He will bring people, and they will kill you, as certainly as those 
 stars twinkle above us." 
 
 " If they kill me, I shall die with the thought that I lose my life 
 for your sake." 
 
 " What help would that be to me ? Oh ! away, only away ! Flee ! 
 Are you wounded ? " 
 
 "Here in the side," whispered Egino, in return. "I feel no pain, 
 but the warm blood." 
 
 "And still you must flee instantly! O my God, how dreadful! 
 If you could flee, flee to the ends of the earth, I should like to flee 
 with you out of this horror! Still, away, away; if this wretch had 
 not himself removed the servants to a distance, they would already 
 be here to murder you." 
 
 She seized his arm and drew him away with her ; he moved with 
 feeble steps. Now that he moved, he felt a violent pain in his side. 
 
 They had reached the entrance of the stair-cased tower, when he 
 said : 
 
 " Shall I there below climb over the wall ? I will not be in a con- 
 dition for that." 
 
 "No, no!" she exclaimed. "Did you come over the wall not 
 through the gate ? " 
 
 "The gate is shut; I came over the wall." 
 
 " O my God, how bad that is ! Stay, wait here ! 
 
 To keep from falling over, he leaned against the wall near the 
 entrance to the stair-tower ; she flew back. After a few minutes 
 she was near him again. 
 
 " I have the key," she said ; "now away ! " 
 
 Supported by her, he reached the steps below, then passed through 
 the garden. When they had fortunately arrived at the little gate, 
 heavy, hastening steps already rang out on the stone plates of the 
 balcony above. With trembling hand Corradina unlocked the gate in 
 the wall and pushed Egino through, pressed the key into his hands, 
 and hastily ejaculated : 
 
 " Take it, take the key with you, or they will wrest it from me." 
 
 She then banged the heavy little door to, behind Egino. 
 
 Livio and the servants who followed him came too late. Livio 
 pushed Corradina back from the door. 
 
 " The key, or I will throttle you ! " Livio, in unutterable fury, 
 gnashed from between his teeth, pressing the wrist of her hand as in 
 a cramping-iron.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 191 
 
 She tore her hand away, and turning to go, she said : 
 " Look for it ! I threw it far from me into the garden ! " 
 She stepped away. 
 
 The servants rushed to about the place in the garden that she had 
 indicated. Two persons with flaming torches now came hastening 
 over the balcony. The servants below called to them to aid in the 
 search. Livio stood with angrily heaving breast, breathing audibly. 
 A moment he watched the servants in the search, then he hurled out 
 an oath. 
 
 " Blockheads ! " he said. " She would not have told us the truth ! " 
 And then following Corradina, he whispered to himself : 
 "This is, then, the cause of her resistance ! This is why she would 
 stay so defiantly in this house ! A man concealed in this garden ! 
 Corpo della Madonna ! A man whom she loves ! The wretch ! To 
 the monks, now ! " 
 
 Livio called to the torch-bearers ; they must pass up the tower 
 stairs back into the castle, through the chambers and corridors there 
 above, finally into the little passage connecting the castle with the 
 cloister. In the cloister everything was buried in profound repose. 
 Livio sounded an alarm. He aroused some of the monks. Drowzily 
 the lay brethren heard it, and came in response. They began to 
 search ; Egino's cell was empty, so they hastened into the garden. 
 Here they found the wounded man lying helpless upon the terrace. 
 Livio desired to remove him into the castle. The monks, in spite of 
 Livio's rage and wild threatenings of death, took him into their 
 protection. During the contention which took place about it the 
 lay brethren bore him into his cell, and brought to him the Padre 
 Infirmario. Livio's commands, threats, ranting, prevailed not over 
 these monks. He must go back frothing with rage. He had only, 
 by the noise which he made, rescued Egino from the fate of remain- 
 ing prostrate on the terrace all night to bleed to death from his 
 wound. Now the Padre Infirmario stood by his couch intent upon 
 rendering him aid ; washed his deeply gaping wound, which extended 
 in his right side diagonally over several ribs ; and had brought to 
 him probes and bandages by Brother Alessio.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE INQUISITOR OF HERETICAL DEPRAVITY. 
 
 |HE order of the Dominicans had two cloisters in Rome ; 
 that of Santa Sabina, and that of Sopra Minerva, lying 
 down in the city, in the neighborhood of the Pantheon. 
 In the latter dwelt the general of the order, the worthy 
 Fra Thomas de Vio ; the man who became so celebrated in Germany ; 
 to whom Pope Leo X. lent the cardinal's robe and the see of Gaeta; 
 who also, as cardinal legate Cajetan, showed himself, at the diet of 
 Augsburg, so unyielding and implacable ; and who yet, from contact 
 with the great German reformer, returned home with thoughts which 
 drew upon himself later the condemnation of his writings by the 
 Sarbonne. 
 
 In the cloister of Santa Sabina was the highest dignitary, the 
 Inquisitor Padre Geronimo. 
 
 Padre Geronimo was a perfect contrast to the slender Padre 
 Eustachio, the latter bearing in every feature the type of the 
 southerner. He towered half a head above the latter ; he was 
 built with a large frame, had a full, red-brown face with hanging 
 cheeks. 
 
 Padre Geronimo was a Swiss, according to descent, from the 
 Rhaetian part of Helvetia. 
 
 On the following morning he stood in the cloister passage leading 
 into the Church of Santa Sabina, on the point of repairing, in com- 
 pany with Father Eustachius, to the early divine service in the choir 
 of the monks. 
 
 On the way hither he was detained, laid hold of, by the Duke of 
 Aricia and his eldest son Livio. 
 
 They had talked to him very vehemently ; the Inquisitor had then 
 let Padre Eustachio give information minutely, and thereupon had 
 said : 
 
 "You hear it. Father Eustachius tells you, as he has already 
 
 192
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 193 
 
 yesterday made known to me, that this German has brought over 
 the threshold of this convent a disguised maiden, into this sacred 
 cloister. Not to consider his heretical speeches, his design to 
 deceive us as a wolf in sheep's clothing, his lies, that sacrilege alone 
 makes him answerable to our court of inquisition. There is no other 
 jurisdiction which takes precedence of ours, not even yours ; and 
 had he transgressed tenfold worse your domestic authority, Your Ex- 
 cellency, I would yet not be able to consent to have him delivered 
 over to you." 
 
 "We must submit ourselves to that," said Livio, thereupon, with a 
 face evincing displeasure, "if you promise us that the manner with 
 which you deal with him grants to us full satisfaction." 
 
 "We will deal with him according to justice and according to the 
 law. The law has strong measures against the hard-hearted and the 
 impenitent ; mild, however, toward the penitent," replied the In- 
 quisitor, with coolness and dignity. 
 
 "And those who act merely in youthful passion and thoughtless- 
 ness," added Father Eustachius, looking at the ground. 
 
 "Correct toward fools," said Father Geronimo. 
 
 The Duke of Aricia, with his agitated face, whose muscles were 
 convulsed with inner excitement, looked, with his keen, piercing eyes, 
 at the head of the order. He did not understand this man, and the 
 latter's cold indifference stimulated in him the aroused fury, the jeal- 
 ous hatred, with which he wished to see Egino instantly subjected to 
 a thousand deaths. He did not comprehend how these saints could be 
 so cool, where he, the knight, stood so much in flames. .What cun- 
 ning was hid in these monks that they would not, with willing sub- 
 mission to him, deliver up this criminal to the house of Savelli ? 
 And if they wished to reserve him to their judgment as a criminal 
 against the church, as a heretic, what could they then have against 
 incarcerating or burning him to-day to .please the duke ? 
 
 The Duke of Aricia did not consider the fact that he, although a 
 duke, was yet only one of the laity, and that the church likes to 
 manage its affairs without the protest or advice of the laity. He 
 also did not say to himself that Egino must possess in Father Eusta- 
 chius a natural protector, whose humble utterances, thrown out in 
 subdued tones, had much more weight with Father Geronimo than 
 all the heated speeches of the two Savelli. Father Eustachius had 
 already on the evening before broken, in presence of the prior and 
 the inquisitor, his previous silence about Egino : he had received a
 
 194 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 rebuke that he had not earlier made these communications. He had 
 through his forbearance with the young man burdened himself with 
 a sin ; but this sin of human sympathy with Egino, this indulgence 
 and mildness became so much the less and so much the more par- 
 donable, the less Egino's guilt was ; and it was also only natural that 
 Father Eustachius represent this last in a mild light. He had told 
 all that could be charged against Egino, but he had also not kept si- 
 lent that he considered it the consequence of the idiotic passion of 
 the young man for Corradina ; and therefore was the great Inquisitor 
 of heretical depravity, the saint, so cool toward the strong pressure 
 of the knight. 
 
 "Do you consider him a fool ? " exclaimed the latter, after the last 
 words of the monk, " he who came to you with the intention of 
 thanks for the hospitality you granted him, to accuse one of your 
 number, and thus to bring upon your whole order ignominy and 
 shame ? " 
 
 " So it is," said the Inquisitor ; " that is, alas ! this young man's 
 offense ; but since it appears not a depraved spirit has impelled him 
 to it, but the transient weakness of the flesh, the mind-dethroning 
 passion for a woman, upon whose power, indeed, more than half of 
 the sinfulness of the world rests, so we must judge with mildness the 
 misdeeds of this German." 
 
 "I am astonished at this mildness of yours, Padre Geronimo," 
 here put in Livio. " Let his sinfulness rest upon what ground it will, 
 do not forget that the audacity of the evil-doer went so far as to 
 order for himself a German monk whom he would introduce into our 
 house secretly, without our knowledge. What was this monk for? 
 for what purpose was he ordered ? Was he probably to wed this 
 bold man to Corradina ? Would he then take her away ? Would he 
 flee with her over the Alps ? Against elopement is Corradina 
 assured at this hour ; yet your mildness with such plans and auda- 
 cious strokes seems to me out of place ! " 
 
 "What is in place, Count Livio," responded Padre Geronimo, "we 
 must consider, and decide accordingly, as we are the lawful judges 
 of the man." 
 
 " And we who are, as well as you, trespassed upon and insulted by 
 him are we, I mean, to have a voice in it ! " exclaimed the duke. 
 
 " Certainly," responded the Inquisitor, with an affirmative nod of 
 the head and a fatherly tone. " You have a voice in it, and, as you 
 see, we hear it now. When has our order not listened in all things
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 195 
 
 to the voice of the Savelli ? I think there was a proof of this re- 
 cently, when we yielded to you in spite of serious scruples in that 
 affair, and were accommodating wherein you so urgently desired of 
 us a service ; you know in that wedding consummated by means of 
 one of our brethren, which now exposes us to danger, as this case 
 with the young German proves." 
 
 "You must also reflect, Your Excellency," remarked Father 
 Eustachius, half-aloud, " that the young man concerned appears to 
 belong to a princely house in Germany ; and that our order has be- 
 yond the Alps houses and numerous brethren, for whom it would not 
 be well done to expose them to the vengence of powerful lords." 
 
 "Ah ! does the wind blow that way ! " murmured Livio, displeased, 
 to himself. 
 
 The duke said : 
 
 " I hope to be able to satisfy you in regard to that. The young 
 man is not without acquaintances here ; and as to what pertains to 
 his transalpine princeliness and its importance, I can draw out 
 information from them." 
 
 With this the interview of the men was broken off. The Savelli 
 betook themselves again to their castle, and on their way home the 
 duke said : 
 
 " These priests ! They have no higher interest than their lust for 
 power ! Therefore they draw away from us the man who yet, 
 according to all right, should have fallen in our jurisdiction ; and 
 they will not act against him, because it might appear they obey 
 us therein." 
 
 " So it is," responded Livio. " It would be best if we should take 
 the German from them by stratagem or force, and make him harm- 
 less in our way." 
 
 "The best but it would be difficult," replied the duke. 
 41 Through force? Their vaults are fast, and to break in openly 
 we dare not. And through cunning ? Do you contend in arti- 
 fice with such a band of priests ? " 
 
 " Priestly cunning is woman's cunning grown up." 
 
 "That means " 
 
 " I think Corradina would not refuse to free the man who, on her 
 account, has fallen into this situation." 
 
 "What a thought!" exclaimed the duke. "I do not wish her 
 again to hear a syllable from this man."
 
 196 LUTHER .IN ROME. 
 
 " It will be meditated upon," replied Livio, thoughtfully, and as if 
 not hearing the words of his father. 
 
 " Do you hear ? I will not have it ! " repeated the latter, loudly. 
 
 "What can it help that she nevermore hears from him, since she 
 will still think of him enough ? Leave the business to me, father. 
 It is best this man be dealt with quickly aside ; and since we cannot 
 get possession of him by force, we must see if we cannot, in some 
 way, get him out of the hands of the monks into our own through 
 stratagem. It is certain, however, that he would most willingly and 
 most without suspicion surrender himself to the guidance of Corra- 
 dina." 
 
 " And can you send her into his prison, that she may lead him 
 out and deliver him into our hands ? " 
 
 "Let me think about it." 
 
 Father and son separated. The former strode through the castle, 
 and reached its court. He had brought before him a saddled horse, 
 in order to ride upon it to Callisto Minucci, and with him have that 
 short conversation whose import we know, and which had caused 
 Callisto, as we saw, to repair to the residence of Egino, the next 
 morning, still anxious.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THOUGHTS OF A GERMAN MONK. 
 
 GINO'S three friends, two clays after the feast of Messer 
 Agostino Chigi, found themselves together at the dwell- 
 ing of Egino, each without having discovered a trace of the 
 missing. They talked much about whether it was to be 
 supposed he had fallen into the hands of the Savelli, or was held a 
 prisoner by the -monks. In the former case it was easier to obtain 
 information about his destiny than in the latter, where it had fallen 
 into darkness and secrecy. Callisto was of the opinion that the 
 latter was the case. 
 
 "The duke," he said, "would not have drawn out information 
 from me, if Egino had been in his power. What would he care 
 about the young man's kin ? The monks, however, have grounds to 
 be careful. Their cloisters are scattered all over the world. If 
 Egino's nearest relatives are powerful landlords, in whose territories 
 are cloisters of the order, these last might have to feel severely what- 
 ever evil the brethren in Rome might do to Egino. Only this con- 
 sideration could lie at the bottom of the inquiries of the duke." 
 
 Callisto then informed them how he, true to the task taken upon 
 himself, had not restricted his quiet investigations to the cloister, 
 but through many kinds of means and in ways standing open to him 
 as the legal friend of the Savelli, he had sought to obtain information 
 about all that had taken place, or was still going on in their different 
 houses. The threads which he had knit together extended over the 
 castle upon the Aventine, over the palace of the Montanara, over the 
 Castle bei Albano, over the Corte Savella in the Via Giulia. The 
 only definite result that he could acquaint them with was, that Egino 
 had been led neither into the dungeon of this Corte Savella nor to 
 the Castle bei Albano. 
 
 Brother Martin had drawn into his confidence a few of the breth- 
 ren of the order, who had promised him to approach the brethren of 
 
 1 97
 
 198 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 the order of Saint Dominicus, and to elicit information. He had 
 heard from them that everything belonging to the Sant Uffizio re- 
 mained covered in darkness and silence ; still it appeared so much the 
 more certain that Egino's affair had not, up to this time, been pend- 
 ing before it. 
 
 Irmgard had in vain by day, and almost still more in the hours of 
 late evening and of breaking day, watched, circled around, and guarded 
 the Aventine. Often had she allowed herself to be accompanied by 
 Gotz ; often, also, had she gone alone, impelled thither by her uneasi- 
 ness. She appeared pale and exhausted. The boy's clothing, which 
 she then wore for the sake of safety, had become large for her and in 
 folds. Her eyes had something peculiarly unsteady; the sun, the 
 air, the inner unrest, which had laid hold of her countenance and 
 given to it an expression of suspense, had marred her pretty fea- 
 tures : she was much disfigured. 
 
 She spoke little in the assembly of Egino's friends ; the fearful 
 idea had taken fast hold of her that Egino had been killed. She let 
 the men hold counsel over the further steps they would take ; she 
 had the horrible presentment that all was too late, all in vain. 
 
 "There is only one way," she said at last, "to obtain certain infor- 
 mation, which is to force one's way to the woman for whose 
 sake Egino has risked all. She cannot be indifferent to his destiny ; 
 she must, as we, wish to see him saved ; at least, she owes to us the 
 truth." 
 
 "You are right," replied Callisto ; "but I would not advise you to 
 make the attempt to reach her. I have already requested my wife, 
 Donna Ottavia, to go to the castle on the Aventine, and there ask 
 that they lead her to the Donna Corradina Savelli. But they have 
 rudely turned her away. They have said to her that the Countess 
 Corradina is not in the castle, not in Rome ; that she has withdrawn 
 to the Castle bei Albano. Since I know now that this is not the 
 case, it is clearly to be inferred from this that they hold Corradina 
 in a kind of seclusion or imprisonment ; and from this it follows, fur- 
 thermore, that they suspect her, that they charge to her a partici- 
 pation in Egino's venture, and that you will hope in vain to have 
 a better chance than my wife." 
 
 Irmgard did not answer ; she folded her hands in her lap and 
 looked down reflectively. 
 
 "The worst is," continued Callisto, "that we have not the least 
 prospect to win in any way the intercession of a powerful and high-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 199 
 
 standing man. We cannot go to Padre Anselmo, because we have 
 nothing definite to ask of him. We can also not represent Egino 
 to any one as innocent ; and if he were, or if one were able to repre- 
 sent the thoughtlessness with which he believed himself able to de- 
 ceive the monks as a pardonable, youthful want of consideration, 
 there is yet no one who, for his sake or ours, would like by an inter- 
 cession to make the monks of Santa Sabina trouble, and mix them- 
 selves with the affairs of Sant Uffizio. The Holy Father himself 
 does not meddle there." 
 
 "And I and I ! " said Irmgard, in deep despair, in a low tone to 
 herself, "who brought him, by my advice, by my assistance, into all 
 this misfortune ! " 
 
 " What did you say ? " asked Brother Martin. 
 
 " That we ourselves must save him, we, we, his only friends, if it 
 is not too late !" 
 
 "No, no; that it is not, believe me," remarked Callisto. "Egino 
 is held in durance by the monks ; and if the monks torture, they 
 torture long. They hasten over nothing." 
 
 The conversation ended with the vow of the three not to be will- 
 ing to leave off their search, and to wish, after some days, to find 
 themselves again together at Egino's dwelling, for further con- 
 ference. Then they separated, Irmgard going alone to the little 
 house on the Quirinal, in which she had found a residence with her 
 uncle ; Callisto and Brother Martin going together, since Callisto, 
 in order to go home, must pass Brother Martin's stopping-place in 
 Santo Maria del Popolo. 
 
 They walked along together awhile in silence. 
 
 " If they do yet mar for me here this pure, noble blood, this off- 
 shoot of German princes," exclaimed Brother Martin after awhile, 
 "so, so " 
 
 " You do not finish," said Callisto. 
 
 "What is the use, Signore Callisto," replied Brother Martin. 
 "" You even do not understand what there is here to turn a German 
 spirit round and round. Since you recently took me into the sin- 
 pool of your feast, it seems to me that I must also hate yon." 
 
 Signer Callisto smiled quietly, and with an expression of superi- 
 ority, as he answered : 
 
 " Do I bear the blame, good brother, if you, in this Eternal City, 
 which still remains always eternal, find so much that is different 
 from what you honorable Germans there at home imagined it ? "
 
 200 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Yes, so it is," said Brother Martin, bitterly. "They should for- 
 bid us to make pilgrimages to Rome. There is much here different 
 from what we believe it in Germany. There goes as if a deep rent 
 through my soul, now I perceive so clearly how men live in Rome ; 
 how they who have the power act as the heathen, and they who 
 think, think as the heathen. Even you yourself, also. It is as if a 
 band of robbers had entered and taken possession of a beautiful and 
 dazzling palace built for the mildly ruling father of the land, and 
 from thence were exercising sway over the land. And as 'like 
 prince, like people,' there is no more any restraint, and almost no 
 hope. That confuses my thoughts ; and when I sit in my cell review- 
 ing the things I experience here, it oppresses me sorely, and I cry 
 out, ' Lord, Lord, what must be done in order to drive out the robbers 
 who have broken down thy sanctuary, have drunken out of thy cups,, 
 and have intoxicated themselves with wine out of the vessels of thy 
 altar ? ' And because I am deprived of breath, I hasten out into the 
 open air and throw myself down upon the barren heights, and look 
 down upon this great gravestone of history this Rome! Is it 
 destined, also, to become the gravestone of all that constitutes the 
 religious connection of humanity with their God ? Shall the faith 
 be buried here where the Apostles are buried ? Shall the basilicas, 
 at some future time, stand there exposed to the winds and weather, 
 robbed of their roofs by the storms, clothed with wild vines, the 
 marble of their pavements overgrown with luxuriant nettles, just as, 
 now stand the temples of Pcestum and of Agrigentum, monuments 
 of a dead thought-world, supulchers of ideas, which we no longer 
 grasp? Shall the world sometime smile over the saint, as we now 
 ridicule the misconceptions of our childhood ? Will the world give. 
 up its adoption by God as a childish dream ? " 
 
 Callisto looked at him, surprised at the warmth of this outburst. 
 
 "And if it should come to that ? " he then said earnestly, and as if 
 meditating. "The church has become a worldly institution, and 
 everything worldly, earthly falls to pieces, everything!" 
 
 "You say that so calmly! Oh! imagine it, even the world un- 
 christianized ! Think of it ! The churches only ruins ! The bells 
 silent : no more those which ring out for you the evening blessing ; 
 no more those which call you to a love-feast with all the brethren ;; 
 no more the Easter bells, which ring into your life its consecration 
 and comfort ; no more a choral song, which speaks over your grave 
 of the promise of resurrection ; no more a tone sounding out into.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 201 
 
 your burdened life from the eternal kingdom of faith ; no more a 
 priesthood, to bless your entrance into life, none to bless the bond of 
 your love ; no one into whose silent breast you can pour out a sin ! 
 No more talk of God, of the world beyond, of the Father's hand 
 which leads us ! What a world ! Humanity would become as an 
 instrument from which the vibrating strings had been torn away. A 
 world without, tune " 
 
 "Not merely strings of faith have been stretched over the instru- 
 ment of humanity," answered Callisto. "There are still other 
 strings which vibrate in the human soul." 
 
 "And what would they be?" asked Brother Martin, quickly in- 
 terrupting. "Strings? Yes; but only religion gives to them a tune." 
 
 "It may be ! Religion, indeed ! But you yourself have a pre- 
 sentiment that the existence now calling itself religion, the official, 
 scholastic, dogmatic religion of Rome, leads the world in such a 
 direction that, as you say, one day the basilicas will stand as do now 
 the temples of Passtum. And this presentiment of yours is exactly 
 the same as that existing in me. Look around you here. The 
 people are still well trained. They pray off their rosaries, they 
 walk in their processions, they kneel and sprinkle themselves with 
 holy water. They hear masses and go to confess ; they reach 
 into their purses and bring forth offerings, and pay for indulgences. 
 All that is training, all of it. The means of training with the 
 dog it is the whip ; with people, the punishment in hell. The whip 
 is something real ; the hell is only an idea. The idea will one day 
 fail. People will laugh over hell. And then ? The means of train- 
 ing is forever gone." 
 
 Brother Martin did not answer ; he walked on in silence, looking 
 before him. 
 
 "The thought steals over me once in awhile," continued Callisto,. 
 after a pause, "that Christ, with his loving anxiety to bring the 
 truth to mankind, has come into the world too soon. Mankind 
 should have been required to struggle longer to come by its own 
 power to a finer human development. A race refined by culture 
 would have understood him. Now, the world has not comprehended 
 him, and he is dead for it. The priests have done their best to make 
 dead the proper, living, true Christ. The church takes the field 
 with a dead commander, as the Spaniards with the dead Cid." 
 
 " And who, who is able to awaken again for the world the dead 
 Christ ? " said Brother Martin. " There must, there must be a
 
 202 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 power found for it, for the world has need of Christ ! Only through 
 him can it become justified ; only through him can it become moral ! " 
 
 "Perhaps," said Callisto, "mankind will, in the future, find another 
 law upon which to build its morality. Who knows ? Are you, how- 
 ever, so firmly convinced that they need Christ for their morality, 
 then you may also take on the consolation that God will not leave 
 them much longer without that power which may wake him up. 
 Perhaps this power will give itself utterance only in the pronouncing 
 of a single great word. Perhaps it will know how to make as a law, 
 instead of fear which trains men, love, which draws men to the 
 bosom of Christ through the impulse of the heart, and not into the 
 church through fear. Such a word would make resound in the ear of 
 mankind again all the Easter bells which would rejoice over the 
 newly risen Christ, and a great and powerful feeling of the divine, 
 like a full chime of bells, would pass over humanity ; they would 
 again have their music, their voice out of the eternal ! " 
 
 " Christ could awake the dead," said Brother Martin, half-aloud, 
 and, as it seemed, affected, for his voice trembled noticeably. " Should 
 a man be able to awake the dead Christ ? " 
 
 " A man ? Not a man, but a divinely inspired thought, which a 
 man may utter. The world has seen such miracles, and they are 
 the only ones which it has seen." 
 
 They went along together in silence, and thus they came to the 
 cloister of the Augustines. 
 
 "Here we separate," said Brother Martin; "still, I have a request 
 to make of you." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " For the maiden, for Irmgard. She loves Egino, and grief has 
 made her sick. If your wife would take an interest in her." 
 
 "Certainly," said Callisto. "Donna Ottavia thinks with motherly 
 care about your poor countrywoman. She has, as you know, recom- 
 mended to her a suitable dwelling with an excellent woman up on 
 the Quirinal, near the Baths of Constantine, and has already been 
 there herself to look after her. The woman Giulietta is just as 
 honest as she is intelligent, and takes the best care of her tenants, 
 Donna Ottavia says." 
 
 "I thank you, Signor Callisto," replied Brother Martin, "and only 
 request that, for the sake of comforting her, your wife speedily make 
 a fresh call upon the young girl. My calling hinders me from bring-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 203 
 
 ing her consolation as often as I should like and she needs it, you 
 see yourself." 
 
 " That is so, as you say ; still, you may be sure that my wife will 
 not neglect it." 
 
 They shook hands, and Callisto turned, in order to pass through 
 the Porta del Popolo to his domestic hearth. Brother Martin pulled 
 the bell at the cloister-door, and immediately disappeared into the 
 interior of the building. He sought out his cell, and seated himself 
 upon an old, hard wooden chair, except a pair of stools, the only seat 
 which the poor little room contained. It stood before the window. 
 Through this window he looked out upon the height rising close 
 before it, steep and barren, only set here and there with scanty 
 bushes, among which a flock of goats sought out a meager suste- 
 nance. The brow of the hill was crowned with an artistically con- 
 structed wall-work ; the last remnant of some magnificent building 
 which once arose here in the luxurious gardens of Sallust, formerly 
 covering these heights. 
 
 Half-way up stood a picture of the Madonna, above some crumbling 
 stone steps ; upon the lowest lay, sleeping, a ragged youth, the shep- 
 herd of the goats. 
 
 Martin lifted his eyes to the picture of the Madonna. 
 
 "Poor woman," he thought, "why hast thou the countenance of a 
 sufferer ? Because the world and the time have killed your Son ? 
 Because they have done violence to his mind and his soul, that both 
 may be stifled, and die? Is it then true what this Roman says, that 
 the world will turn its back upon all this strange miracle-work, with 
 which as an armor they have clothed the dead heroes ? Will the 
 world reduce to ruins their pictures and your own ? The youth 
 there sleeping at your feet will he, when he has become a man, 
 lift up a stone and hurl it at your head as thanks for the shade you 
 have expended upon him to-day ? Is mankind on the point of awak- 
 ing as if out of a sleep, and ridiculing the dreams it had, and des- 
 troying the pictures ? Will one, at some future time, pass through our 
 forests and find no more the pious shrine of the saints at the cross- 
 roads, around which, as to-day, some poor maid with a care-heavy 
 heart places a wreath of oak-leaves, or entwines the golden broom ? 
 
 " Will no cross longer mark the still, cool graves of our dead ? 
 When one passes through a peaceful village in a green meadow-vale, 
 will he there ask, ' What ugly, dark heap of ruins is that in the midst 
 of your village ? ' And will one receive the answer : ' Those are the
 
 204 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 ruins of a church, as our fathers called it. They assembled there to 
 honor their God, but they had a priest as servant of the altar in this 
 house of God who told them so many unreasonable and incredible 
 things about their God, who so long threatened them with his 
 wrath, and so long drove bargains with his favors, that they began 
 to laugh at him, and resolved to bother themselves no more about 
 God, but only about their daily labor' ! Will it come to that ? Will 
 the lean kine thus consume the fat, the curate beat the vicar, and 
 the common people the curate ? Will the last Pope with his cardi- 
 nals, a little heap of feeble diminutive old men, sit upon one of these 
 seven hills, like Pope Benedict upon Peniscola, hurling upon the 
 world, which has forgotten them, excommunication which no more 
 excites them ? Cruel thought ! The world without Christ ! A world 
 which casts its glance only upon the ground, upon the earth at their 
 feet upon which they labor, no more forward into the infinity of 
 their future ; no more upward into heaven ! Men nothing but leaves 
 upon great trees appointed to fall off to make fresh place for the 
 new, which come only to fall away and to molcler ; the world a great 
 heap of refuse ! A thus wider, buzzing child's play, eternal, eternal 
 in cruel monotony ! " 
 
 Brother Martin had supported his head upon his arm resting 
 before him on the widow-seat. He now let his eye sweep above 
 to the overhanging mountain-cliff, which suddenly took on a wonder- 
 fully rosy glow, and looked up to the sky glowing in most magnif- 
 icent purple from the reflection of the evening light. 
 
 " Ecce signum omnipotentis Dei!" he continued, in his silent 
 monologue. " Dost thou come to say to me that I am a fool ? That 
 thou canst not have kindled this immeasurably wonderful sunlight 
 in order to lighten up the childishness of an aimless perpetual motion ? 
 and that thy Word, thy Spirit will flame further through the 
 ages than this beautiful, indestructible globe of the sun ? That I am 
 a fool, with my oppressed, downcast heart, if I suppose the dark 
 funeral company which buried the Master could take from mankind 
 their eternal need, the faith, if I see the crosses destroyed, the 
 churches of our German villages lying in ruins, the former voices 
 silent in the towers of our cathedrals, the last monk speedily 
 starving in some rocky desert ? Is it a crime in you, a sinful 
 despair? Lord, forgive me; I see indeed thousands, hundreds 
 -of thousands of honorable men in whose inner bjing the crosses are
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 205 
 
 already broken, the churches already lie in ruins, no tone of a bell 
 icalls any more to faithful meditation 
 
 "And still, it cannot, cannot be! This Roman is right. Only 
 the word must be found, a word of new life ! Whence is it to be 
 taken ? Where is it to be found ? What did that wonderful Master 
 Raffaelle Santi say he has made himself free and found beauty I 
 .should, through freedom, find truth? Freedom ? Shall the living 
 word preach liberty liberty from that funeral company? Shall it 
 say, ' We shall each go his own way to Christ, and walk without you 
 to God ? ' 
 
 " Is that enough ? No. The black company has stirred up the 
 intellect and the reason, and thus raised men in revolt against God. 
 What quiets the disturbance must come from the soul. From the 
 soul, the word that saves us ! From the soul " 
 
 Poor Brother Martin ! if you should come to these Romans with 
 your German soul would they understand you ? 
 
 He thought awhile; then, rising, he said : 
 
 "And if not, what difference would that make? The German 
 understands the word of the soul ; and if the Romans do not, so may 
 every people become saved in their own way. It is better that they 
 go different ways, each guided by his own indwelling nature, than 
 that one lead another astray, and draw him into the abyss." 
 
 He sprang up as if revived. With both hands he stroked his thin 
 face, his luminous eyes, and concluded his soliloquy with these 
 Avords : 
 
 "And now let us clown to these monks below."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GOSSIP OF AN "ARTISTA." 
 
 HILE the German monk and Callisto walked along the 
 street in such an earnest interchange of thought, Irmgard 
 had gone back alone to the little house in which she, 
 with her uncle, upon the recommendation of Donna 
 Ottavia, had taken up her abode with the widow of a worker in 
 marble and her son. As said before, the house lay upon the then 
 still desolate Quirinal, at whose western foot arose the palace of the 
 Colonna, the oldest of the still-standing palaces of Rome ; while upon 
 the height above, stretching to the ruins of the Baths of Constantine, 
 extended the garden of the palace. The whole square above was 
 still, and deserted by men. On an old wall of the baths reclined the 
 little house of the widow ; it was surrounded by a garden, in which 
 the woman raised cabbage and artichokes, and a hedge of a prickly 
 shrub fenced it around. In the corner of the garden, in a thicket of 
 shrubbery, stood a plane tree and a mulberry tree in a group 
 together ; under them, a stone table ; a piece of a marble frieze out of 
 those old baths served as a seat behind it. Irmgard, when she came 
 home and had looked after her uncle, seated herself there, and 
 looked with her careworn glance over the city, which now, flooded 
 with the bright glow of the sun, she could look down upon from this 
 height. It was the sunny splendor of the Hesperides, which lay 
 lighting up in her presence the Eternal City. She saw the cupolas 
 and the monuments of Rome before her. A gentle breeze blew 
 a coolness through the shady nook under the trees in which she sat 
 hidden. This breeze, which drew so gently through the leaves 
 of the laurel bush near her, bore to her the fragrance of blooming 
 oranges from the gardens of the Colonna. Irmgard was young ; she 
 was strong and healthy ; every breath in this pure air should have 
 streamed through her with a feeling of a full, joy-creating life-force. 
 
 206
 
 STATUE OF RAPHAEL.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 207 
 
 And still she sat drawn together as if bound around with the 
 weight of pain. She bore the blame of Egino's misfortune. She 
 knew not how to live longer without the hope to save him, with the 
 consciousness that she had led him into destruction. 
 
 She felt herself lacerated, consumed, dying under this thought. 
 
 She was where she found herself surrounded with everything to 
 live for, everything for a happy, physical being, and a thought killed 
 her. 
 
 Nevermore except through pain does man perceive that he is 
 entirely soul, entirely mental life, entirely a world of thought and 
 feeling ; that his physical being is nothing but the fragile glass 
 vessel which contains his real self. Pain is the great revelation of 
 immortality. 
 
 Pain is the great revelation which speaks to us out of the glowing 
 thorn bush of our own inner self, and for which we need no testi- 
 mony, no miracles. 
 
 While Brother Martin and Callisto talked of faith and of a new 
 foundation for the ethics of the future, Irmgard received through 
 pain the lesson which develops man into moral perfection here, and 
 forms him for its reception in eternity. 
 
 Irmgard sat thus a long, long time. Through the open window of 
 his room she observed Uncle Kraps ; he had no more the pleasure 
 of looking out upon the world through panes of glass, for the 
 widow's little house did not have any : if one would look out, he 
 must have the wooden shutter opened just as at home in Germany. 
 Uncle Kraps had become reconciled to this, as to many other things. 
 He had become reconciled to seeing his dreams of titles, and robes 
 of state, and extraordinary distinction disappear ; he had become 
 reconciled to having men laugh at him here, just as they did at 
 home in Ulm, whenever he let himself be seen ; he had even become 
 reconciled to the goat's flesh and the bitter, roasted bird of the Cam- 
 pagna set before him by his landlady ; for all these things he had a 
 solace, and it was the sweet, golden drink of Orvieto. 
 
 Uncle Kraps was on his way to that philosophy which forgoes to 
 master things mentally by the use of dialectics, and confines itself 
 to becoming their master through the frame of mind ; a philosophy 
 so much the wiser when it allows itself to have and to create more 
 easily this temper than the mind or the thoughts. Uncle Kraps 
 had brought to himself one, two, three, four flasks of Orvieto wine, 
 and also of others, of Rocca di Papa, of Marino, of every different
 
 208 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 sort, "Dei pin megliori castelli" and the frame of mind was there. 
 
 Irmgard had in the last days forgotten to guard her uncle, and his 
 progress in the art of getting the better of life by tonic incitation of 
 this frame of mind had escaped her ; she did not see with what beau- 
 tiful results his practice of this art of overcoming the world had 
 been crowned, for Uncle Kraps was a silent nature. His voice at 
 home had had something bleating about it ; and if in the evening 
 hour she perceived something of stammering, it was hard to recog- 
 nize this alteration, because it had been brought about by a peculiarly 
 gentle transition. So about Uncle Kraps there was no anxiety to be 
 entertained ; he was, on the contrary, an element of gayety in the 
 house of the widow. Beppo, her son, the marble-workman, broke 
 out into a laugh every time the remarkable man opened his mouth 
 to utter one of those Italian words which belonged to his rather 
 scanty vocabulary, and which he brought forth so comically and 
 accented so falsely. 
 
 But what could cause the grief of the young German maiden, who 
 was evidently under the pressure of some suffering of the soul, who 
 no more ate or drank, who seemed to ramble restlessly around ? 
 
 Thus questioned the kindly widow, Signora Giulietta, and Beppo, 
 her laughter-loving son ; in whose countenance the laughter always 
 died out, and who always threw back his dark head to shake from his 
 brow the raven locks when he espied Irmgard. 
 
 They had no answer for this question, and still it appeared to oc- 
 cupy them more and more every day at least Beppo, who for some 
 time came home more regularly of an evening, and much earlier 
 from his work at the studio of his master, a sculptor, or from the 
 excavations under the guidance of Raphael, with whom he also 
 worked. 
 
 Beppo was a stonecutter, and therefore called himself an "artis- 
 ta," and was, in his way, a cultivated young man. They are all the 
 product of the ancient life-culture, these happy sons of Ausonia ; to 
 each one of them has* been handed down a greater or less share of 
 the ancestral heritage. 
 
 Beppo had a pair of deep black eyes, and these always glowed 
 more than usual when they lay upon Irmgard. Irmgard, truly, had 
 observed it ; she had, therefore, always been monosyllabic and quiet 
 when the young man was there, and Beppo was therefore shy, going 
 about her as about a mystery. 
 
 " She has a love-sorrow, the Giovinetta ; she has left her heart be-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 209 
 
 hind her in her land," said the widow, when she was alone with her 
 son, and he began about the strangers. 
 
 "No, no; I'll wager it isn't so," then asserted Beppo. "When 
 they came to rent these two rooms, these remarkable people, the 
 maiden was well and gay, and now she is no longer so. Her trouble 
 lies in Rome. Ask her about it, mother." 
 
 "As if I hadn't done it!" answered Frau Giulietta, shrugging her 
 .shoulders. 
 
 " And what has she replied ? " 
 
 "That she is not well." 
 
 "Not well! And yet she is on her feet the whole day; still she 
 is up on the Aventine more than in her room." 
 
 "On the Aventine?" said Frau Giulietta. "And how do you 
 know that ? Have you slyly followed her ? " 
 
 " I know it," replied Beppo, coloring slightly; "we have been work- 
 ing there under Santa Sabina, in the old vaults. I know that if her 
 grief lies in Rome, it lies on the Aventine." 
 
 " Ecco, ecco /" exclaimed Frau Giulietta; "only do not give your- 
 self anxiety about it." 
 
 Beppo turned and went out into the little garden, and saw Irmgard 
 sitting under the trees in the shady corner. 
 
 He stood and looked over at her, which he could do without 
 restraint ; for she sat motionless, her glance fixed upon the ground, 
 .so lost in thought that if she had looked up, she would not have 
 perceived that she was observed by him. 
 
 Beppo finally took courage and went to her. 
 
 He stationed himself near her ; with hands behind him he 
 reclined with his back against a plane tree, and said : 
 
 " It is fine up here -in the fresh air, Signorina. Do you not find 
 it so ? When the evening breeze comes hither from the sea, it is 
 always so mild and refreshing; one breathes with redoubled joy 
 when he has crept around all day in the dark under-world, like a 
 blind mole." 
 
 "And in what under-world have you crept around, Beppo ?" asked 
 Irmgard, raising her glance, but inattentive, and not looking at the 
 young man. 
 
 " I have assisted at the excavations," continued Beppo ; " there are 
 twenty artists and workmen of us besides, Master Raffaelle Santi 
 comes from time to time ; the Holy Father has intrusted to him the 
 entire oversight. We rummage around in old, obstructed vaults,
 
 210 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 dark chambers, and lofty passages. You would not believe what 
 a frightful under-world it often is ; sometimes it is broader, grander, 
 higher than in the largest palaces here above ; baths, they call them, 
 then. We shovel and dig by torchlight, like a troup of demons. 
 You should see it, Signorina ; it is indeed a strange sight in the 
 damp, moldy vaults, where the water often drops from the walls, 
 and toads or salamanders glide or hop over the floor, when the 
 unaccustomed beam of light falls upon them " 
 
 "And why do you do it?" said Irmgard, interrupting him. "Do 
 you seek for treasures ? " 
 
 "Now, we do certainly seek for treasures," exclaimed Beppo, 
 smiling, " for treasures of every kind ; of course, those of the 
 best kind, such as gold and jewels, we do not find." 
 
 "What, then, do you find ? " 
 
 "Busts, coins, vases, statues, sarcophagi ah! what all do we 
 not find ! Under the rubbish of Rome, you must know, lies a world 
 of precious relics ; the entire possessions of ancient times, as much as 
 has not been destroyed. It is like a house that has been over- 
 thrown by an earthquake. We find works of art in marble and 
 bronze, tablets with inscriptions, stones with reliefs ; in the Baths of 
 Titus we have found remnants of wall paintings. I tell you no 
 disagreeable and trying labor is better rewarded than ours ! " 
 
 " And have you carried on such work to-day, Beppo ? " asked Irm- 
 gard. 
 
 "Of course, even to-day." 
 
 " And have you found much ? " 
 
 "Ah! no, about nothing," replied Beppo; "and so we have come 
 away tired and disappointed, and must hope to have better luck to- 
 morrow. It is the fate we often have, to see that others have 
 already been there long before us, and have hunted and rummaged 
 through everything; not, indeed, for the sake of the art things, but 
 for treasures. For in olden times people cared very little for art ; 
 they were in this respect great barbarians, our forefathers, Signo- 
 rina. Scarcely twenty years have flown by since they began to carry 
 on excavations and searching for artistic things. In the Cata- 
 combs, indeed have you ever heard of the Catacombs, Signorina?" 
 
 Irmgard, who for a long time had no longer followed Beppo's 
 chat, only shook her head gently. 
 
 " You have never heard of them ? Oh ! you must see them ; you 
 must let me take you there," exclaimed Beppo, eagerly. " You can
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 211 
 
 have no idea of this world of death and of horror. Long, long laby- 
 rinthian passages, narrow and high, hewn out of the tufa and clay in 
 the dark earth ; also little halls, chapels ; and, right and left in the 
 walls, one above another, the loculi y or grave-niches, wherein the 
 bodies of the dead have been placed, the dead and slain Christians 
 and martyrs. I tell you, it is a world full of the horror and dread of 
 death, and therein have the poor Christians hidden themselves, and 
 have celebrated the holy sacraments in secret stillness and dread of 
 the persecutors, who have often broken in upon them even there ; 
 and then they have poured out in streams the blood of the poor flock 
 of God, and have then shoved the bodies right and left immediately 
 into the wall-niches and put before them a stone to close them. Ah ! 
 you must see it, Signorina. You cannot otherwise understand how 
 yet since then the beloved God has been so gracious to his church, 
 and how great and powerful it now is. I went for the first time 
 into the Catacombs it was exactly ten years ago ; and my father, 
 who was a very pious man, Signorina, very God-fearing, and only too 
 good to the poor and to the monks, who did not then neglect our 
 house now, of course, since the mother is poor and feeble, you see 
 them give us a call less frequently but what was I going to say? 
 My father had taken me with him just ten years ago, and on that 
 day it was that Madame Lucretia went in procession to Ferrara as a 
 bride. When I came out of the dark depths, where once the poor 
 persecuted martyrs, the poor Christian lambs fleeing before heathen 
 wolves, hid themselves in their distress, and now slept in this world 
 of the dead extending for miles, I was quite wretched and sick at 
 heart from all this. My limbs trembled with cold, and my teeth 
 chattered. But in the bright sun shining without, on that bright, 
 warm winter day, and in the midst of the people that we saw stream- 
 ing to the Corso, and that bore us with them thither, and when my 
 eyes soon fell upon the finest festal procession which the world has 
 ever seen, then I was quickly healed ! I was an urchin, Signorina, 
 hardly fourteen years old, and one that forgot nothing soon ! But the 
 procession, which I have never forgotten and shall never forget, such 
 a magnificent and glorious thing it was ! Just over the Catacombs, in 
 which we had been with the dead martyrs, it was passing along ; the 
 Holy Father, and his daughter, and his son, Don Cesare, and the sons 
 of the Duke of Ferrara, and the cardinals ; the hoUow ground must 
 have echoed with the tread of their proud steeds, and the joyful 
 shouts of the people must have penetrated even to the quiet locrili of
 
 212 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 the poor saints. Oh ! you should have seen it ! Such'a sight one 
 beholds but once in a lifetime, and only in Rome. The Holy Father 
 gave them his attendance as far as the Porta del Popolo, Don Cesare 
 to the Ponte Molle, and the nineteen cardinals to the Prima Porta 
 and farther. Not to be overlooked was the number of pages, of 
 body-guards, of nobility, of high officials ; and inestimable was the 
 magnificence of the costumes of scarlet and gold, and of silk entirely 
 hidden by embroidery of gold and adornments of precious stones. 
 Don Cesare wore a splendid coat-of-mail held together by a golden 
 girdle ; the saddle cover of his powerful war-charger alone was valued 
 at ten thousand ducats. Madame Lucretia, however, wore a close- 
 fitting dress of crimson silk with a sbernia over it of golden tissue, 
 with broad, flowing sleeves, and bordered with ermine. Covering her 
 head, with its flowing golden hair, was a hat also of crimson silk with 
 a proudly dangling plume, and upon the left side hung a string of 
 pearls down to her ear ; she was so beautiful, Madame Lucretia ! A 
 band of musicians in costly robes marched before her, but the cries 
 of the people sounded above their tune. And how great the proces- 
 sion was you will be able to form an idea, Signorina, if I tell you that 
 the number of horses and mules which the Holy Father gave away 
 with his daughter might carry no less than a thousand ; there were 
 two hundred wagons ; and of the cardinals who gave her escort, each 
 had two hundred nobles, halberdiers, pages and servants in his reti- 
 nue. Oh ! you should have seen it. My young heart rejoiced in me 
 over all the glittering magnificence, and my pious father, who stood 
 behind me, laid his hand upon my shoulder and said : 'You see now 
 to-day, my son, how God is with his holy church ; out of the dark- 
 ness of the Catacombs and the misery of martyrdom, he has led it to 
 the highest worldly glory, as it is said in the book of Judges, " I 
 have saved you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from every 
 hand which oppresses you, and have given to you your land." 
 
 Beppo was obliged to take breath, he had fallen into such eager- 
 ness in his narration, accompanied by the most animated pantomime. 
 
 " You are right, Beppo," answered Irmgard, with a painful twitch- 
 ing of the mouth. " He has lifted it very high. Still, there are always 
 martyrs who languish in the Catacombs, as you call them." 
 
 " Martyrs ? " 
 
 " Well, yes. Has not the Inquisition dungeons ? " 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed Beppo, " but those who languish therein are 
 not martyrs, but heretics ! "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 213 
 
 " Of course ; but, in any case, their lot is to be pitied." 
 
 "Holy Mother!" exclaimed Beppo, "the lot of heretics to be 
 pitied ? But if men did not judge them what would our lot be ? 
 Would not God seek us out with all the plagues of the land of Egypt, 
 with famine, and pestilence, and earthquakes, if we were remiss in de- 
 fending his honor, and did not take vengeance with the edge of the 
 sword upon those who sin against him ? I pray you, Signorina, what 
 would become of us ? " 
 
 " You are right, good Beppo ; your God has need of vengeance. 
 And that he may obtain it, he has here upon earth the judgment of 
 heretics, and there beyond the eternally flaming woodpile of hell." 
 
 Beppo looked at her in astonishment, his eyes dilated. Did the 
 maiden speak so impiously in earnest ? He was going to answer 
 her, when she continued: 
 
 " And so is the whole life such a world : down in the depths of 
 dark labyrinths for the poor, the bondsmen, the outcasts ; and up 
 yonder above, the immense festal procession of the great and 
 powerful ! "
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 WHO KNOWS? 
 
 |HILE Irmgard thus listened to the chatter of Beppo, and 
 in her grief looked upon the world as divided by fate 
 into two halves, one dark, subterranean, for the poor 
 care-burdened ones, and one bright, sunny upper world 
 for those born to privileges, she was not aware that among this 
 privileged class, in the proud occupant of a princely castle, she had 
 a sister in pain. Upon the high-towering balcony of the Savelli 
 house, which presented a view of the Eternal City, and seemed lord- 
 ing over it, sat Corradina, as isolated, as full of care, as Irmgard in 
 her poor little garden. 
 
 And if Irmgard, from pain at Egino's fate, from anxiety about him 
 yet, felt upon her heart the pressure of bitter reproof made by her 
 conscience Corradina, besides her anxiety for the missing one, 
 felt the pressure of uneasiness about herself, her own fate ! 
 
 The pain of the child of princes was no less than that of the poor 
 maiden from the people. 
 
 She sat upon the balcony near the little worktable ; upon it lay a 
 little book with parchment leaves closely filled with writing, bound 
 in a gracefully wrought cover of shining metal. She had just been 
 reading in it ; the finger-tips of her right hand still lay upon the 
 lower edge, to hold it open. But she was looking beyond the leaves, 
 away ; what she had read must have occupied her mind profoundly 
 and intensely. 
 
 As if arousing herself from thought, she then closed the book 
 and pushed it from her. 
 
 "If there could a man be found," she whispered, sighing deeply, 
 "a man for this book! They seek the 'philosopher's stone,' and 
 here, here it is, the stone for a philosopher ; but where is the phi- 
 losopher for it ? Where is the slinger powerful enough to hurl this 
 stone at the head of the Goliath ? Where is the hand strong enough
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 215 
 
 to bear this formidable weapon forged by my ancestor? Shall it 
 never be of further service than to pour anger into the soul of a 
 young maiden, and through wrath give her strength ? 
 
 " Strength, strength ! Ah, how I need it ! And how long will 
 that which is in me suffice, hold out, to keep me upright ? " 
 
 These words, which came gently and as if complainingly over the 
 lips of Corradina, were to-day uttered by her for the first time ; and 
 the feeling which they expressed had a few days since come over 
 her soul for the first time. 
 
 Something like a defiant pride, a lofty self-consciousness, as well 
 as the union of her fancy with forms of the past, had up to this 
 time kept this thought far from her. She could not have grown 
 faint-hearted, if she had said to herself that the men and women 
 whose blood coursed in her had stood in such infinitely greater and 
 more difficult struggles. 
 
 To-day such considerations had no more for her the tempering 
 effect that they formerly had. 
 
 The wrestling with personal cares, the anxiety seizing immediately 
 upon her heart, lay upon her too heavily to be removed from her by 
 forms of the remote past, let her fancy occupy itself ever so much 
 with them, let them draw ever so near her. What were all the lofty, 
 deceased ancestors to the living, breathing form so near her of a 
 young man who, for her sake, with such foolhardy fearlessness, had 
 rushed into a danger before he had even taken a moment of time to 
 reflect upon the greatness of this danger. 
 
 She thought of the host of men who, enticed by her wealth or 
 her beauty, had sued for her favor. While over all these she curled 
 her lips with an expression of contempt, she felt a kind of pride in 
 this German, whom she looked upon as a countryman ; a kind of 
 pride in his preference, which had manifested itself so chivalrously. 
 
 Egino von Ortenburg stood no nearer her heart than any other 
 man. Such a sudden surrender would have been impossible to this 
 heart. If she had seen him for the first time in an assembly among 
 other men, her glance would have glided indifferently over him. But 
 his warmth, his ardor for thoughts which lay now in her own soul, 
 had influenced in her a feeling of sisterhood for him, a feeling of 
 stronger, more sacrificing friendship ; and now, when his actions had 
 wrought upon her fancy, when his condition had awakened all her 
 anxiously concerned womanly sympathy, she thought more of him 
 than of any other man on earth.
 
 216 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 . With an infinite relief she had found out from Livio that the 
 monks over there had not delivered Egino to her relatives. She had 
 had Father Eustachius brought over to her, and sought to obtain 
 from him information about Egino's further fate. Eustachius had 
 been silent about it ; he had been unwilling or unable to tell her any- 
 thing more than that, in the first place, nothing could be undertaken 
 against Egino, because he was too severely wounded. He had also 
 tried in his severe, but at the bottom of his heart not hard and love- 
 less way, to console and quiet Corradina. She placed her hopes in 
 Eustachius ; had he not from the first shown himself remarkably 
 mild and indulgent towards Egino ? If he had not had his monkish 
 notions, there would have been something free and humane in him. 
 
 Still, Eustachio's words did not reach so far in appeasing Corradina 
 as to induce in her a passive inactivity. She tortured her brains with 
 plans and thoughts of helping the prisoner, of rescuing him. Of all 
 her servants she could trust no one she knew that. She thought 
 of drawing into her confidence Livio's wife, Cornelia Savelli. 
 Was it not possible the latter would find a satisfaction in getting 
 away the German knight from the hatred of her husband, to play 
 upon him a stroke of revenge ? Corradina knew Cornelia too well 
 not to find this probable ; but if she spoke to this Cornelia of the 
 German, she knew that Cornelia would believe in her love for the 
 German, and in her mind she saw already the eyes of this frivolous 
 woman resting mockingly upon her. Corradina's pride revolted at 
 this idea most violently, and thus there was wanting to her the cour- 
 age for such a resolution. 
 
 With gold and with promises of greater gain to herself she had 
 sought to bribe her body-servant, whom she knew the duke and Livia 
 had already bribed. She had thereupon received the most beautiful 
 promises in return. And, indeed, the woman had at least been able 
 to bring her news, which Corradina was obliged to receive as true. 
 
 Teresa was even now stepping through the window-casement out 
 on the balcony, with a face as if she had something important to* 
 communicate. 
 
 " What news do you bring, Teresa ? what have you found out ? " 
 asked Corradina, in excitement, " good or bad ? " 
 
 " Eh," replied the maid, " who knows ! I have found out that 
 Count Livio, with his servant Sor Antonio, has gone down into the 
 vaults and cellar-rooms under us, and that they have stayed there a 
 long time."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 217 
 
 "Ah!" said Corradina, "that clearly enough betokens to me the 
 worst ; for what can Count Livio wish except to look around in the 
 vaults and deserted places for a dungeon for the unhappy German ? 
 Perhaps he has recovered, and the monks show themselves ready to 
 deliver him up ? " 
 
 Teresa shook her head. 
 
 "Possibly, possibly," she said; "but I do not believe that the 
 monks will give him up. He is said to be a heretic, Fra Alessio has 
 told me in confidence, and then they dare not give him up ; the 
 heretics belong to their order, Madame." 
 
 "But what do you think, Teresa, could otherwise have impelled 
 Livio to go down there ?" 
 
 Teresa lowered her voice to a whisper. 
 
 "The vaults below are adjacent to the vaults under the cloister, 
 where the prisons are." 
 
 "They are adjacent? But they are still separated by thick 
 walls ? " 
 
 Teresa shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 "Cki losa? Who knows?" she replied, "whether Count Livio 
 will find the walls separating them so thick as to hinder his going 
 through, in case he wills to do it ! " 
 
 Corradina, whose countenance had gradually grown paler, was 
 silent awhile. Then she said: 
 
 " But how could it help him to force his way through, Teresa ? 
 You have assured me of having found out from Fra Alessio that 
 Count Egino does not lie imprisoned in the lowest dungeons, but in 
 a cell higher up, and that the Padre Infirmario is taking good care of 
 him ? " 
 
 " So it is, so it is ; Fra Alessio said so," put in Teresa; "but can 
 I know whether or not Fra Alessio is telling the truth ? And 
 whether, when perhaps the German is cured, they will not bring him 
 into the worse dungeons, perhaps even into the Chapel of the Im- 
 mured ? Do they tell us the truth in such things ? " 
 
 " You are right," responded Corradina, with trembling lips, and 
 feeling her anxiety inexpressibly increased. 
 
 " And then," added Teresa, " I must confess to you that yesterday, 
 also, I saw this Fra Alessio in a private conversation with Sor An- 
 tonio over there in the cloister-garden. I can overlook the cloister- 
 garden from the window of my room up there. So I saw them ; they 
 sat under the olive tree of the Holy Dominicus and conversed quite
 
 2i 8 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 heatedly together. Do we know now whether Alessio tells what 
 comes from himself, or what has been put in his mouth by Sor 
 Antonio ? " 
 
 " Do you believe that, Teresa ? " 
 
 Teresa shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " That we know as good as nothing ? " 
 
 " If it were not that what Alessio said is also the most probable, I 
 would think so." 
 
 "And Eustachius has also led me to suppose the same," said 
 Corradina. 
 
 Teresa nodded ; and since she knew nothing further to communi- 
 cate, she left to find out as much as possible in secrecy what Livio 
 was doing in the lower regions of the castle. She left Corradina in 
 greater pain and uneasiness. The young woman tortured her brain 
 with thoughts and plans of saving Egino, and among them all was 
 no one which held even the remotest hope of success. 
 
 After awhile she put both hands before her face, and then made a 
 movement with these hands as if to motion something away, as if to 
 ward off a picture of fancy, and at the same time as if a light shudder 
 passed through her frame. 
 
 "Away with it, away ! " she whispered. "Why does this horrible 
 form thrust itself before me ? In truth, through him, through him 
 it would be possible through this Cardinal Riario ! He would ren- 
 der aid ; but could I sink so low? Would Egino himself wish me to 
 humiliate myself so deeply for his sake ? " 
 
 "And still still, why am I not educated to such humility, such 
 dovelike softness ? Upon this road might lie rescue for myself and 
 the German. If I could open my lips before Riario and reveal my 
 heart to Egino, I would be happy. With the rescued one I could 
 flee into a better, nobler, a peaceful world; before me would lie a 
 future, a life with hopes, with pictures of future happiness in it! 
 And now, now lies before me darkness and dread of the coming 
 day and what it may bring! 
 
 " But I cannot do otherwise ! I cannot degrade myself, and if I 
 could, I could not do it to such an extent as to forget I had degraded 
 myself, and then I must hate myself an account of it. 
 
 " So the fate must be borne until it pleases God to avert it, and to 
 have mercy upon a soul which is, as yet, the way he created it and 
 on this account very, very unhappy ! "
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A WAY AND A HOPE. 
 
 |T was on the next day. Irmgard, as if tired out, as if de- 
 spairing in her search, had spent the morning at home, 
 and had assisted Frau Giulietta in her little garden, tear- 
 ing out dry pease, and placing them upon the wall of the 
 house to finish drying them. While doing this she had perceived 
 much noise and disturbance, which must prevail over in the gardens 
 and courts of Colonna Palace. There came to them only a muffled 
 sound ; the walls were high ; the palace lay still rather far down be- 
 low them, on the square of the Church of the Holy Apostles. But 
 still they perceived that something unusual must be going on there, 
 and Frau Giulietta did not delay in telling Irmgard the cause of it. 
 She was even initiated into all that happened over there ; she and 
 her son Beppo, indeed, belonged to the clients of this powerful house, 
 and the chief servant over there was Frau Giulietta's special friend 
 and patron, who, when he was passing her house and saw her, never 
 failed to stop awhile and have a little chat, now over this, now over 
 that. 
 
 "That they are somewhat in excitement over there is no wonder," 
 said Frau Giulietta; "for in the night, you must know, cara 
 Irmgarda, they have received a guest, a very eminent and noble 
 guest, who has ridden in with many lords and servants. It is the 
 Duke of Ferrara, Lord Alfonso von Este, the husband of the beauti- 
 ful Madame Lucretia, if you have ever heard of her." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! Beppo, your son, has told me about her. And has 
 the duke brought with him this Madame Lucretia ? " 
 
 " Oh ! not that," answered Frau Giulietta ; " the duke has not 
 made the journey hither for feasting and pleasures, but only that 
 our Holy Father may absolve him from excommunication. The 
 Holy Father has put him under ban, and that was right ; for the 
 duke made an alliance with the French king, and has thus carried 
 
 219
 
 220 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 on war with the Holy Father and his ally, the republic of Venice ; 
 then, however, the King of France made peace with the Holy Father. 
 You can have Beppo tell you about it, as he knows everything as it 
 took place ; he understands everything that happens of the nature 
 of war. In this respect he is at home like a Swiss race-runner, or a 
 German summoner ; and if he did not have his poor mother, who is 
 alone in the world, and but for him without help, he would certainly 
 have run away long ago in full armor to become a soldier. As it is, 
 however, he must indeed remain at home, and be an honorable 
 laborer, which supports one, in a kind of a way, you know, for 
 the marble-work doesn't pay much, in truth. But the wages in the 
 excavations are good, and they must be ; for if they were not good, 
 you understand, Irmgarda, it would be a bad thing, with all the beau- 
 tiful, costly things they find. Who would otherwise answer for it 
 that the people would not then make themselves even for what they 
 believe themselves to have earned by their sour toil ? Human 
 nature is weak, and one could not look after the fingers of each one ; 
 and so they must seek out honorable and reliable people for the 
 purpose, and reward the labor respectably, or else respectable people 
 will not come to them. But to come back to the Duke of Ferrara, 
 I was telling you that he, deserted by his king, could not alone offer 
 resistance to the Holy Father, for the Holy Father is a mighty 
 master of war, before whom stronger ones have already humbled 
 themselves ; and that, in fact, the duke wished also to do, but the 
 Holy Father would know nothing about it, and treated his embassa- 
 dors in such a manner that they sprang out of the window through 
 fright. Now, you must know, however, that the Holy Father has a 
 very illustrious and celebrated commander, and that is Lord Fabricio 
 Colonna, who once, some years since, in a battle, or in a conquered 
 city, I believe it was Ravenna ; Beppo would know, fell into 
 Duke Alfonso's hands, and was conducted to Ferrara, and there 
 was treated so lovingly by the duke that they become quite intimate 
 friends. To Lord Fabricio, then, Duke Alfonso finally turned, and 
 the former has secured for him now peace and the deliverance from 
 excommunication by the Holy Father ; and so the duke has come, 
 and there will be great splendor over there. There are such power- 
 ful and rich lords together that there are no more like them in 
 Rome, and, indeed, not in the world." 
 
 Frau Giulietta began now to chatter about their patrons, the 
 Colonna, the Lord Marc Antony, the son-in-law of the Holy Father,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 221 
 
 and Prospero, and the wild Pompeo, who would so gladly have been 
 a soldier, and whom they had brought by force under the priestly 
 tonsure, and finally of Fabricio, again, the commander of Pope 
 Julius II. 
 
 Irmgard had long been listening with only half an ear, when she, 
 looking up, saw Brother Martin coming, walking slowly through the 
 garden. He nodded to Frau Giulietta ; he gave Irmgard his hand, 
 and said that' he only came to exchange greetings and to look after 
 her. He was carrying a heavy book under his arm, which Irmgard 
 took from him, to lay it upon the table under the shady cluster of 
 trees, whither she led him, in order that he might rest himself and 
 wipe away the sweat standing in bright beads upon his brow. 
 
 Brother Martin was silent and absent-minded ; he was just from an 
 hour of instruction which he was accustomed to take in the forenoon 
 from a learned rabbi named Elias Levita, in order to learn the He- 
 brew language. Alas ! the hours did not continue to be devoted 
 merely to the suffixes and prefixes ; it came also to disputations be- 
 tween the learned young monk and the wise old rabbi, and in these 
 the rabbi was not always to be beaten, and proved fallacious ; and to- 
 day, especially, had he vexed Brother Martin with the assertion that 
 there could exist a thoroughly religious people living within the nar- 
 row limits of moral law, entirely without dogmas, and that such a 
 people the Jews were. They had, he said, no creed except that of 
 the one God and of the coming of the Messiah. 
 
 This contention still echoed in him to such an extent that he let 
 fall a few words of it in presence of Irmgard. Irmgard became silent 
 thereupon; then, after a pause, lifting her eyes to him, she said : 
 
 " Give me one piece of information, Brother Martin will you ? " 
 
 "And what?" 
 
 " Tell me, in what do people believe who believe nothing ? " 
 
 Brother Martin smiled. 
 
 "That seems a childish question, and yet there lies in it profound 
 wisdom ; the feeling that to human nature faith is an inextinguishable 
 need ! What do they believe ? You would not understand me, Irm- 
 gard, if I were to speak to you of their ideas ; it is, indeed, finely and 
 enchantingly thought out, and for subtle minds like a pleasure gar- 
 den, in which to rove about and lose themselves to their hearts' 
 delight. But for a man who thinks and cares for his sinful nature, 
 how he is to become justified before God, it does not quicken the 
 soul."
 
 222 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Irmgard looked meditatively before her. Then she asked : 
 
 "And what do you think we should believe of justification when 
 we feel that we are unworthy of pardon, and still do not believe that 
 we can atone for what has happened through rosaries and fasts ? " 
 
 "Does that also torment you?" asked Brother Martin, looking at 
 her in astonishment. 
 
 " It also torments me, for I bear a sin upon me. And you see it 
 has become clear to me that I cannot through works, through a 
 whole sea of good works, wash it away from me. Good works do not 
 make good. This Rome is built of them, and they rise in churches 
 and cupolas in all magnificence even to the heavens. Men, however, 
 are not good therein ! Therefore must sin be atoned for through 
 something else, and I am of the opinion it is only through penitence, 
 through sorrow. Dare I say it ? I am of the opinion Christ did not 
 come to arm God's wrath against unhappy mankind by a bit of death, 
 which could not fall heavily upon him, for it was still only in appear- 
 ance and blinding the people, who found him again, after three days, 
 alive and well. I am of the opinion that Christ came as an embodi- 
 ment of pain, as pain clothed with form, to show us that the saviour, 
 the redeemer, the mediator, is pain." 
 
 Brother Martin looked at her with an earnest countenance, and 
 almost becoming angry. 
 
 " Is all the world, even you also, running out of the school of faith ? 
 Does it lie in the air ? Is it a contagious fever ? A pestilence and an 
 illness ? Pain ? Well, yes ; the pain of penitence is the saving bath 
 of the soul. But above the pain is something higher, to which the 
 soul must force itself as to the high-hanging jewel with which to 
 purchase its pardon ; otherwise the pain avails nothing. That is the 
 action." 
 
 "Action?" 
 
 " Yes ; the action of inner surrender to Christ in fructifying 
 love, out of which then, as out of a freely gushing fountain, follows 
 the impulse to works of love for our fellow-men ; yes, even for the 
 unknowing animal, that is also a creature of God." 
 
 "You are right, truly," replied Irmgard, thoughtfully. "What I said 
 was the feeling of a woman who feels herself weak and helpless for 
 the deed of love for the brother on whom alone she can think, whom 
 she would most willingly help." 
 
 " I understand it, Irmgard," responded Brother Martin, seizing 
 her hand with emotion. " I will also only scold you because you
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 223 
 
 lose so easily faith in the protection of God, and the help of the 
 Providence watching over us all." 
 
 "Your God is so hard," she said. "He is not good, your God; if 
 he had been good, he would never have created men. What a God 
 who makes for himself men, and then such a thing as hell for them! 
 A good man cannot be the inventor of a horrible rack of torture. A 
 good God would not do that which leads him to invent something 
 still horribly worse ! Tell me now yourself, would you procure for 
 yourself three little dogs, if you knew two of them must be thrown 
 into the water and pitifully drowned ? Would a good God create for 
 himself men, when he knows that two thirds of them must be 
 thrown in the fire and consumed ? " 
 
 Brother Martin was silent. He felt himself in presence of the 
 young maiden still more helpless than in the presence of the 
 wise rabbi ; he felt profoundly such simple reproaches against the 
 weakness of the theological armor with which he had gone forth 
 equipped into the world. 
 
 He thereupon confined himself to reviving her hope with mild 
 exhortation. The best consolation he left her was something 
 definite about Egino's fate, which he was able to communicate 
 to her before he left. He had heard through an order-brother 
 that Egino was still in Santa Sabina, and that he would probably be 
 guarded in a prison cell in the broad vaults and rock-hewn chambers 
 under the cloister. The order-brother had not been willing to name 
 to Brother Martin the source of this information, but assured him it 
 was reliable. 
 
 There lay at least the satisfaction for Irmgard of knowing that the 
 worst of her fears had not yet been realized, that Egino had not 
 yet been put to death by the wicked men in whose power he had 
 fallen. 
 
 When Martin was gone, Irmgard turned to the house to 
 spread the table for Uncle Kraps in the great cool chamber 
 which they both occupied, and in which Irmgard also slept, 
 while her uncle found lodging for the night in a' little adjacent room. 
 
 After eating, Uncle Kraps rested, as was his custom of old, and 
 Irmgard betook herself, with some work, 'again into the garden to 
 the seat in the shady thicket whither she had previously led 
 Brother Martin. There she reflected over Brother Martin's words, 
 over his words about the action standing above the pain ; and as it 
 was with her now about the heart, she could not come to any clearer
 
 224 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 or stronger feeling about the inner act of surrender to God and to 
 his love. She must be with all her thoughts occupied with the 
 deed to which all her being urged her, the deed of help, of rescue. 
 And ah ! it was so impossible to her, so past finding out how well 
 may that be said, the higher is the deed ; but how inconsolable was 
 it for him who had no hands, no arms, to do anything ? 
 
 Then came Beppo, stepping into the little garden through the 
 opening in the hedge. Irmgard heard him talking with his mother ; 
 he wished something more to eat. While Giulietta went to warm him 
 some food he came to Irmgard. 
 
 "You, Sor Beppo?" she said. "You come home to-day at an 
 unusual hour in the afternoon instead of in the evening! " 
 
 "That's so," replied Beppo; "but I come as tired on such a hot 
 day as if I came in the evening ; besides, I am as hungry as the wolf 
 that suckled Romulus and Remus, and must have had much to do 
 to still a pair of such wild youngsters. We have worked hard yester- 
 day and this morning ; but we have been obliged to give up the work ; 
 it didn't pay." 
 
 " And where were you then ? " 
 
 " On the Aventine." 
 
 " On the Aventine ? " 
 
 " Yes, Signorina Irmgarda, right there. Master Raffaelle Santi was 
 intent upon uncovering there the passages to the old burial-places 
 of the Latin kings. But we have found nothing of them, and the 
 work has been left off; we will be to-morrow on Monte Celio." 
 
 "And where were you on the Aventine ? " questioned Irmgard. 
 
 "We have been at the foot of the rock-wall which goes down 
 against Via Salara and the Marmorata. There is an old arch form- 
 ing a gate into the rock. In the room behind it a merchant of the 
 Campagna has had his wine-cellars, which are now empty ; but at 
 the end of the room a passage leads farther into the rock, which is 
 obstructed, and we have cleaned out the rubbish, and have thus 
 reached a higher-lying vault. The vault had been broken through 
 above, and a mound 'of rubbish lay under it ; when one climbed up 
 on this he could reach with his hands the rim of the opening high 
 above him. I forced myself up into the room above, and what did I 
 find ? That everything had been known and searched through long 
 ago ! In one corner of the upper room, into which I had forced my 
 way, was even an old, rusty, iron-grated door, which must lead into
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 225 
 
 the vaults and dungeons under Santa Sabina, and under the cloister 
 in which the heretics are confined." 
 
 "Into the dungeons under the Dominican cloister?" said Irmgard, 
 growing pale, and speaking half-aloud with a trembling voice. 
 
 "Just so," added Beppo. 
 
 Irmgard looked at him awhile, as if lost in thought. Then, while 
 a slight flush mantled her cheek, and gasping deeply, she said : 
 
 " Listen, Sor Beppo ; I am for one time a curious woman, and the 
 desire torments me to see once " 
 
 "What do you wish to see, Signorina ? " 
 
 "These prisons, the heretics, who languish in the cloisters 
 under Santa Sabina." 
 
 " And are you not afraid of the sight ? " 
 
 " Not in the least." 
 
 Beppo clapped his hands together in astonishment. "Demonio ! " 
 he said, "you, a girl, have more courage than I." 
 
 "Possibly! Would you also not have the courage to conduct me 
 thither to where you were to-day to that grated door of which you 
 .speak ? " 
 
 " Holy Mother of God ! you would not, in fact " 
 
 " In fact, Beppo, I should like once to reach it." 
 
 " Impossible, impossible ! And if the monks should find you 
 there, the watchmen " 
 
 " It must be in the night, when the guards and monks sleep 
 the sleep of the righteous." 
 
 "But the door is locked," exclaimed Beppo; "to force one's way 
 in would be quite impossible." 
 
 "Perhaps so. That would then be my business. You would only 
 have to guide me to the door, no farther. Still, if you will not risk 
 it, we will talk no more about it." 
 
 " Nevermore, nevermore ! " said Beppo, scratching his head, and 
 .still all the time very much frightened. 
 
 "You would have thereby rendered me a great service," added 
 Irmgard, with a deep sigh. 
 
 "Yes ; see, Signorina," answered Beppo, "I should like to render 
 you a service, willingly for my lifetime. But only think, if they 
 should discover us there ; if " 
 
 "If they should discover us, we must have some pretext in 
 readiness."
 
 226 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " And what pretext could we have to explain that we wished to 
 force our way into the dungeons of Sant Uffizio ?" 
 
 "You, Beppo should not force your way in there," said Irmgard. 
 "You should only lead me to that rusty iron door. Could you not 
 answer now, if one should see us there and require us to tell 
 whither we thought of going, that you had lost some object of value 
 to you while working there, and came back with us, as your friends, 
 to hunt for it ? " 
 
 " Ecco, ecco ; what clever notions you have, Signorina!" exclaimed 
 Beppo. " Such a thing anyone must find credible ; and that so much 
 the more as it would occur to no one that anybody would think of 
 forcing his way into the dungeons of Sant Urfizio." 
 
 " Well, then," added Irmgard, " what could you have lost ? " 
 
 "What could it be? If I should possess jewels, I would not 
 wear them at my work." 
 
 " That's so ; then, if it should be the case that we should be ob- 
 served and questioned, say it is a silver Agnus Dei, that you are ac- 
 customed to wear as a memento of your pious father." 
 
 Beppo nodded his head. 
 
 "That is good," he said ; "but," he added, as if in suddenly recur- 
 ring anxiety, looking upon Irmgard with a beseeching glance, " but 
 must it really be, Signorina ? " 
 
 Irmgard forced herself to a smile. 
 
 "Have you not heard that what a woman sets her head on must 
 always be done ? " 
 
 Beppo nodded again. 
 
 "Yes, yes;" he said, sighing; "then I shall not be able to escape 
 you. But understand clearly, I lead you only so far as the way is 
 without danger to that highest vault." 
 
 "Only so far," assented Irmgard. "Where the danger begins 
 you turn back, and let me go on alone." 
 
 "No, no," exclaimed Beppo, reddening; "it is not on account of 
 the danger, but such curiosity as yours is a sin, which I cannot assist 
 without a sin of my own." 
 
 " Quite right ; you shrink only from the sin," said Irmgard 
 smiling. "As far, however, as you are able without sin, you will 
 guide us, myself and my uncle, whom I will take with me, and who 
 will protect me ; and, for the purpose, dear Beppo, provide a pair 
 of lanterns or torches, which we shall need, will you?"
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 227 
 
 Beppo stood staring at her and scratching his head, in great 
 disturbance of spirit. 
 
 Irmgard suddenly arose to go ; she gave him her hand. 
 
 "I have your word, Beppo," she said "I have your word, and 
 you must redeem it. I let you off no more. I go now to my uncle, 
 to speak to him about it." 
 
 She went hastily to the house. 
 
 "Holy Mother of God!" said Beppo, with a deep sigh, looking 
 after her. "If I gave you my word, I must truly redeem it! But 
 whither is this maiden leading me astray ! If my mother were 
 aware of it ! May all the saints help us ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NELLA PERDUTA GENTE. 
 
 N a thoroughly idealistic nature such as Egino's, it may be 
 a benefit to be for once surprised and cast down by a 
 stroke which reveals to it the entire misery of humanity 
 in its perfect wretchedness, without a veil, without any 
 kind of mitigation, without any possibility of diminishing through 
 the beautifying art of speech the dread which chases the serpent- 
 covered head of this human wretchedness through the soul, through 
 the joints and marrow. 
 
 Without an experience of this kind, such idealistic-winged souls 
 never learn what the world is, and what men are. Without it they 
 never become startled out of their stubborn confidence. 
 
 Egino was to have such an experience. He lay imprisoned in a 
 narrow, musty chamber, within four gray-black walls of stone, under 
 a cloister of the Dominican order in a kind of intermediate story 
 between the deep dungeons below and the cloister-rooms above him. 
 This chamber or cell was yet one of the best of these horrible, un- 
 ventilated places. It had a bed with a coverlet, a table, and a couple 
 of chairs. There were no chains and no rings fastened to the walls ; 
 no preparations of this kind were there to awake in the prisoner that 
 most horrible feeling, the anticipation of that which was ahead of 
 him. There only hung from the vaulted ceiling a chain about two 
 feet long with an iron ring attached. What did this betoken ? 
 What purpose was this ring to serve ? Egino did not know, did not 
 comprehend, but his feeble glance was often riveted upon it. Often 
 when he lay upon his bed in a half-slumber, loatjiesome, horrifying 
 pictures twined themselves about the rusty black ring ; goblin eyes 
 coming forth out of the twilight peered through the narrow circle ; 
 the ugly phantoms of a diseased imagination hung to this horrible 
 and terrifying mystery over his head. 
 
 223
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 229 
 
 And then the cell had light. A weak and insufficient light forced 
 itself through a -narrow, high-placed, unglazed opening in the wall. 
 It was not grated ; that was unnecessary, for it was too small to 
 allow a man to slip through it. The sunlight of the south, however, 
 is strong and powerful. After accustoming himself to it a few days, 
 it sufficed for Egino to see all objects with more perfect distinctness. 
 
 He saw that the four stone walls surrounding him were like four 
 leaves of a book, of a book of wonderful contents. It was like a 
 book which the naked human soul, in its purity and beauty, in its 
 delirium, and, again, in cynical shamelessness, had written, as if it 
 said, "You have torn away from me the last garment; now see 
 what I am !" All that could be extracted from human nature under 
 the pressure of despair, had written itself here upon these walls in 
 confused outcries, in blasphemies, in curses, in abominable pictures, 
 and in noble rhymes, in prayers, in verses of moving beauty. There 
 were verses from Dante and Petrarch scribbled upon these walls of 
 stone ; passages from Plato, Boethius, Horace, near passages from 
 the Bible ; forms of saints and heads of angels were drawn there 
 near the most obscene and most filthy things ; then again an Agnus 
 Dei, rosaries, amulets, scapularies, all the childish puppet-play of 
 superstition. 
 
 Egino had been nursed the space of a few days in the infirmary 
 of the cloister ; when it was evident that his wound was not danger- 
 ous, that his enfeebled condition was only the consequence of a 
 great loss of blood, and when the fever from his wound quickly sub- 
 sided, Padre Geronimo had ordered him to be brought into this cell. 
 The Padre Infirmario visited him here once a day to look after his 
 wound, to renew the bandages ; at the same hour Brother Alessio 
 brought him his food and water. They had also brought to him his 
 clothing from the cell above ; nothing indicated that they wished to 
 treat him with hardness. But they did not speak with him ; the 
 Padre Infirmario talked only of his wounds, Brother Alessio was 
 perfectly mute and nothing, absolutely nothing, not once the 
 thought of rescue, of flight, which seemed impossible, of which 
 Egino in his feeble prostration did not possess the energy to think, 
 broke in upon the dreams, the meditations, the inquiries of the pris- 
 oner, upon the feverishly throbbing pulses of life-thought in him ; 
 upon which heated ground, however, the soul-plant within waxed so 
 much the stronger and more powerful. 
 
 His inner life, as we saw, had become a life of the soul. His
 
 230 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 idealistic nature, in the hands of his passion, had fled into the saving 
 shelter of soul-life from the shock with which the cosmology of 
 Rome threatened him. He had clung to his love, and in its 
 presence what there was in him of original, innate piety, as if 
 recollecting itself, was newly inflamed ; the beautiful resignation to 
 the Divine which characterized his childhood, this sweet poesy of the 
 young human soul, had returned to his heart like a warm flood of 
 sunbeams. Love, poesy, religion, they are one and the same feel- 
 ing ; the trinity of that which fills the human soul ; the longing, the 
 longing for the beautiful, let it be the beauty of the earth or the 
 beauty of heaven. The poet, who gives himself up to his dreams ; 
 Dante, who follows Beatrice through the endless spaces of creation ; 
 the stigmatized saint ; the enraptured anchorite, who pursues the 
 Madonna to the cot of eternal peace under the palms under which 
 resound the harps of the angels, they all equally obey the one 
 impulse of the human breast, the impulse toward the beautiful. 
 
 Egino must, with this thought, find himself in the dirty, dark cell 
 of the church prison in order to feel with an overwhelming force the 
 horribleness of a theology which used such means of compulsion 
 of compulsion to faith ! To think of forcing into the human breast 
 by dungeons, racks, iron rings and piles of fagots, the freest things 
 in the innermost being, poesy, love, religion ! 
 
 It was fearful. It was madness seated upon the throne, with the 
 sword of the highest judgment in the one hand, with a book of law 
 written by a demon in the other. 
 
 Egino felt that if ever again .he should leave this cell, the last 
 bond would be rent asunder between him and this ecclesiasticism ; 
 that he would hate it to the death ; that he would seek his God with 
 the free impulse of his soul. With this impulse must he find him 
 truly. The stream would not rush in unrestrained course through 
 the land, if the ocean for which it strives were not really there. The 
 thirst would not exist if there were no water at hand to still it ; the 
 eye of man, with its desire of sight, would not be created if there 
 were no light ; and so the eternal thirst for God would not burn in 
 the human soul, if there were no God into whose bosom outpours 
 this stream of longing which, for thousands of years, runs through 
 humanity with equal strength. 
 
 Out of such thoughts flowed over him a peculiar quiet, a peace. 
 He had, with a profound German fidelity, held too long to the 
 faith of his fathers ; with hundreds of threads it had been wound
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 231 
 
 about his innermost heart. There had been deeply written upon his 
 soul what this faith had once been for the moral order of the world ; 
 what the church had effected as the great mother of culture ; what it 
 had won for mankind, and to what manhood it had led ; how it 
 had restrained savageness, subjugated and enchained the passions, 
 inspired and ennobled rude existence. The inner falling away from 
 this faith could not take place without a painful hesitation and 
 struggle. In this cell, however, with his eyes directed to these 
 walls, to the leaves of this horrible book, which he had to see daily 
 and to read, it became no less clearly inscribed upon his mind 
 that the ecclesiasticism which imposed itself upon his age had 
 forfeited its right to existence. 
 
 Meanwhile, as with dreadful monotony and tediousness one day 
 vanished after another, his strength gradually returned. He was 
 still very weak, but the feeling of life stirred more and more 
 powerfully in him. This had about it something alarming. Some 
 one tells of a prisoner who saw the four walls of his prison 
 being gently shoved together, and could foresee the day and the 
 hour when they would touch each other, suffocate him, crush him to 
 death. For Egino this growing strength of the feeling of life 
 brought something similarly grievous. In the proportion that his 
 bodily weakness departed from him, arose in him the need of light, of 
 air, of liberty, grew in him the feeling of the intolerableness of 
 his condition ; the imprisonment became to him a gentle pressure of 
 the heart becoming continually harder and harder. The effort 
 to hold out in this dungeon preyed more and more sharply upon his 
 .strength. He could look forward to the moment when this power 
 would disappear and be consumed ; when it could no longer be 
 endured; when he would become deranged or must kill himself, 
 let himself starve.
 
 VOLUME III. 
 
 THE DAUGHTER OF EMPERORS (Conclusion),
 
 ST. CECILIA. (RAPHAEL.)
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LIVIO'S STRATAGEM. 
 
 IVIO SAVELLI would not have been Livio Savelli if he 
 had not entertained the firm conviction that an avowed, 
 and perhaps guilty, relation existed between Egino and 
 Corradina. Neither the customs of that time, nor the hot 
 blood of the South in him, nor his inferences from the circumstances, 
 could allow him to think otherwise. Would Egino have exposed 
 himself to so great a danger without being sure of a reward for his 
 venture? Would it have been possible for him, without the joint 
 knowledge and assistance of Corradina, to force his way into the gar- 
 den of the castle ? And would Corradina have saved him if she did 
 not love him ? 
 
 There was still continuously boiling in Livio Savelli a venomous 
 rage over it. All his meditations and thoughts were involved with 
 it. He must annihilate the German and subjugate Corradina to 
 himself ; the passion in him which desired possession of her, had, 
 through the thought that she preferred another, become something 
 which racked him continually ; it had become an unceasing torment. 
 
 Should he leave Egino to the monks, to their Inquisition ? 
 
 The Inquisition was, on the whole, a mild, negligent, drowsy 
 creature just at that time. It was like a fully sated tiger digesting 
 its repast. It had burned, racked, allowed to pine away, incarcerated 
 mangled ; it had exterminated entire populations and drunk streams 
 of blood. This last, however, had taken place years before. Now it 
 had become indolent and a little childish ; it had gone out of style. 
 Once in awhile the tiger still stretched itself, as if to test the strength 
 of its limbs ; it administered a stroke with its paw, and then a fu- 
 neral-pile flamed forth, like that of Savonarola. But what could it do 
 then other than again fall into slumber, in a time when the people of 
 culture read the writings of Plato instead of the Gospels ; when 
 Bembo, the cardinal, wrote to Sadolet, that he did not like to read 
 
 235
 
 236 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 the Epistles of Paul, lest he should injure his style ; when even the 
 Popes, such as Alexander VI., Julius II., and Leo X., troubled them- 
 selves very little about theology ; when it could be told of Leo X. 
 that he had said to Pietro Bembo, " All ages have been witnesses of 
 how useful to us these fables concerning Christ have become." This 
 was a slander, but it was significant that such a thing could have 
 originated and have been repeated innumerable times. The Inquisi- 
 tion had become something which no longer made itself at all felt in 
 certain lands of Italy ; as, for example, during the entire long reign 
 of the formerly strong believer, Hercole I. von Este, not a single 
 trial for heresy was held at Ferrara. In other lands it was some- 
 thing that moved only by starts, in especially provincial opportuni- 
 ties, where cunning and wickedness united in the transgression of 
 dogmas and ecclesiastical law. And even in Rome it was no longer 
 that which could have given Livio satisfaction, if Egino only knew 
 any way to defend himself skillfully. 
 
 And as concerning Corradina should he carry out against her 
 that which he had threatened ? Should he carry her away by force 
 to his Castle bei Albano ? 
 
 He dared no more to use violence towards her. He had his father 
 to fear. Since the day when the latter had learned of the scene 
 with Egino, he had no more left the castle on the Aventine ; he 
 occupied there the chambers always standing prepared for the head 
 of the house, and was now always at home. 
 
 It was evident that he had resolved in jealous passion to stand 
 guard over Corradina. 
 
 Livio could reach his aim only through artifice, also that of taking 
 vengeance upon Egino. He combined both aims into one plan, and 
 hit upon his preparations. 
 
 "Corradina," he said then, walking into her chamber on the same 
 day in which Beppo was urged by Irmgard, and induced to risk with 
 her the dangerous undertaking, " Corradina, I beg you not to be 
 alarmed at my coming to you to-day. I come to conclude a peace 
 with you." 
 
 Corradina looked up and inquiringly directed her great eyes upon 
 Livio. 
 
 "I do not fear you," she answered; "but the peace which you 
 come to offer from your evil, angry countenance, you appear to 
 wish to unite with it severe conditions."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 237 
 
 " I come not to make conditions with you, although, perhaps, to 
 utter some reproaches." 
 
 "Reproaches? And wherefore?" 
 
 " Why did you not tell me candidly that my passion for you was 
 hopeless? " 
 
 " That is the last reproach I could expect from you ! I mean that 
 candor has never been wanting to me, and you cannot have for- 
 gotten that I have very often, and very, very definitely, declared it to 
 you!" 
 
 "What were these declarations ! With a woman whose heart does 
 not belong to another, a man always has hopes. Only when it beats 
 for another, does a reasonable man relinquish the hope. Why did 
 you not say to. me that your heart was given away to that Ger- 
 man?" 
 
 Corradina shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 "I do not love the German," she replied; "and if I did, you would 
 be the last one to whom I would intrust the fact." 
 
 "You would answer me more amicably if you knew with what an 
 honorable effort I have conquered my passion for you, and have torn 
 it forever from my heart ! " 
 
 "You know how to conquer your passions ?" 
 " It is as you say, Corradina. If you, however, will not accept it 
 that it has been by a good emotion of my soul or by a moral power 
 that I have conquered this passion, then take it that it has been by 
 the pride in me." 
 " The pride ? " 
 "So I said." 
 
 " Do you feel yourself degraded by that which you call your love 
 for me? That would be a more righteous emotion than I supposed 
 you capable of." 
 
 " I feel myself degraded by it, but in another way than you think. 
 I feel myself degraded by the thought that another man has been 
 preferred before me. In the first hours, days, after the discovery, I 
 would willingly have killed this man ; I could with pleasure have 
 seen him die under unutterable torments ; I have cursed myself that 
 my dagger did not penetrate more deeply, strike more truly. Since 
 then, calm reflection and cool understanding have become my 
 master ; I feel compassion for this poor devil of a German and for 
 you, Corradina." 
 
 "I do not need your compassion ; but speak further."
 
 238 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 "You do not need my compassion, but my help." 
 
 " Your help ? For what ? " 
 
 "To save this German." 
 
 "Do I wish to do that?" 
 
 " Most certainly. He has, for your sake, fallen into danger and 
 into prison ; what is more natural than that you would even go to 
 any length to free him from it ? " 
 
 "Granted that should be the case, your help is the last upon 
 which I would count." 
 
 " Corradina," said Livio, after a pause, while he strode through 
 the room, reclined with his shoulders against the wall near the 
 window-casement, and folded his arms over his breast. She, mean- 
 while, was looking through this window straight before her, beyond 
 the garden beneath, into the glowing evening-sky beyond the Janic- 
 ulus, which poured over her head in a peculiarly rosy golden sheen. 
 " Corradina," he said, " through all this bitterness and sharpness 
 you only show to me best what you wish to conceal from me, that 
 you love this German ; you forgive me the most natural act, the 
 simple deed of defense which I committed, not because it was 
 directed against him." 
 
 "I have never loved a mortal man," replied Corradina, "not even, 
 him ! " 
 
 " We will not contend about it. In any case you wish to save 
 him. And I I wish to take you away from the neighborhood, 
 the reach of my father's power ; but you will not go." 
 
 "Not to your castle." 
 
 " You could seek refuge in some other standing open to us, if 
 every other did not belong to my father, and also stand open to 
 him. Only that of Albano belongs to me, as my own assigned por- 
 tion. I am the master there ; and the drawbridges there rise and 
 fall at my signal, and at that of no one else in the world." 
 
 " Speak further." 
 
 " You save the German, and, since he is still sick from his wound, 
 conduct him to my castle and nurse him there." 
 
 Corradina slowly lifted her head to Livio, and looked at him ques- 
 tioningly with her great eyes. 
 
 " Are you in earnest ? " 
 
 " I swear it to you." 
 
 " You save him if it is possible to save him. Why need I to 
 do it ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 239 
 
 " I would finally, also, do that, if I were certain he would consent 
 to become saved by me. But if I should force my way to him, he 
 would certainly not follow me. And can I think of carrying out my 
 plan by force, with people to force my way into the dungeons of 
 the Inquisition? Would my people risk open violence, even if I 
 were willing to risk it ? You alone can carry it out you alone, and 
 in stillness." 
 
 Corradina did not answer, and Livio continued : 
 
 " Listen to me. The affair is not difficult. Count Egino can 
 easily be saved, if he only will trust himself to follow the one who 
 forces the way to him. The rooms over there under the cloister are 
 separated from those under the castle by a not very strong dividing- 
 wall. I am at this hour having that wall secretly broken through. 
 Beyond it a narrow passage leads to a round chapel; around this 
 lie the cells of the dead ; at the side of the chapel a stairway leads 
 above into an upper passage, to which other more airy and more 
 roomy cells are adjacent. In one of the last have they confined 
 Egino von Ortenburg. It is the third. The key is in my hand ; I 
 have had it prepared from a wax impression which I have obtained. 
 You go, now, at the fourth hour after Ave Maria, when the monks 
 lie asleep, to the prisoner, and he will follow you, as Paul the angel 
 who stepped into his prison. If I should come he would surely 
 resist, and create a disturbance, which would bring the monks on 
 our necks ; and, although my name is Livio Savelli, I should not like 
 to fall into, a close contest with the Inquisition. I can also send no 
 one ; there are no people who, with me or alone, would press into 
 the dungeons of Sant Uffizio. If it is to take place, you must do it 
 yourself, Madame Corradina." 
 
 Corradina had remained silent all this time. 
 
 " In all that you are right," she said at last. "And so I will do it, 
 then. It is not possible that cunning and treachery lingers behind 
 the whole thing. You are not bad enough for that, Livio. You 
 could have no interest in letting me fall into the hands of the monks 
 of Sant Uffizio." 
 
 "No," responded Livio, dryly, and entirely avoiding her glance. 
 " You will do it entirely without danger. A part of the way will I 
 accompany you myself, and be your guide. You will free the Ger- 
 man, and lead him back through this castle ; in the court below two 
 mules will be awaiting you, and two armed servants, in order to bring 
 you to Albano. There no one shall harm a hair of your head or his.
 
 240 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 So we both will have accomplished what we wish. He will be saved, 
 and that is what you wish ; you will be removed from the power of 
 my father, that is what I wish ! " 
 
 "And I will be given into your power! " remarked Corradina. 
 
 " How inextinguishable and cruel your mistrust is ! You do me 
 wrong, Corradina." 
 
 " I have reasons to be on my guard," said Corradina, curling her 
 lips with an expression full of bitterness, "toward you no less than 
 toward your father, and all that surround you." 
 
 " But you hear now that my mind is changed since I know that 
 you love this German ! " 
 
 Corradina shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " So much so that you give yourself all the trouble," she replied, 
 "to find out where Egino lies imprisoned, how these dungeons are 
 arranged, how one can force a way into them, that you will defy the 
 danger of penetrating into them all of that out of zeal to rescue a 
 man whom, as you believe, I love ? What magnanimity ! Messer 
 Ludovico Ariosto should devote to it a dozen stanzas in the heroic 
 poem on which he is laboring ! " 
 
 Livio smiled. 
 
 " Messer Ludovico Ariosto ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 "Why do you repeat the name ? " 
 
 " Because he stands in nearer connection with the matter than you 
 are aware." 
 
 "Who Ariosto?" 
 
 " If not he, exactly, still his court, his master, the illustrious 
 Alfonso von Este, and his consort, the golden-haired Madame 
 Lucretia." 
 
 "Will you have the goodness to explain that to me ?" asked 
 Corradina. 
 
 " I will tell you everything, to dissipate entirely your mistrust. 
 You know, years ago, when the Borgia were still our masters, and 
 your Luca, Don Cesare's friend, I was, to some extent, the friend of 
 Donna Lucretia. We all, all the young nobility of Rome, and I, 
 most of all, then lay in her bonds, the beautiful, charming woman." 
 
 " I know ; so much as a child can find out of such things. I heard 
 of it." 
 
 " Well, then, Lucretia has since become the wife of Alfonso von 
 Este ; and Alfonso von Este is here."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 241 
 
 "He is here, the Duke of Ferrara? He is carrying on war with 
 the Pope, and is here ? " 
 
 "Just so. He was the Pope's truest ally and gonfalonier of the 
 church ; then, when our Lord Giulio with his help had conquered his 
 enemies and made a conquest of Romagna, the Holy Father con- 
 cluded peace with the former enemies, and carried on war with his 
 ally. Ferrara may have seemed to him very suitable to round out 
 the conquests in Romagna. In this contest the fortune of war 
 went against the duke ; he wished for peace, and has several times 
 sued .for it in vain. Once he sent Ariosto with such a message, but 
 in vain ; finally he has found a friend in Fabricio Colonna, who has 
 rendered the Holy Father favorably disposed toward him, and he is 
 here to perform the act of submission and homage required of him. 
 I saw him yesterday in the house of the Colonna. He brought to 
 me greetings from Madame Lucretia, and invited me to Ferrara 
 heartily and pressingly. I burn to see Madame Lucretia again as 
 the faithful, modest housewife and beautiful princess of Ferrara, in 
 the midst of a splendid court, surrounded by talented and noble 
 men." 
 
 "You will indeed go to Ferrara ? " 
 
 " Even so ; you know that ' old love never dies.' I will accom- 
 pany Alfonso on his return home ; and thus, I think, you have a 
 key to that which you so bitterly name my magnanimity. I cannot 
 go away and be quiet in soul, if I leave you behind here in this 
 house. You, however, I say to myself, will not leave it if the Ger- 
 man does not leave it with you ; so save the German for yourself, 
 then leave it." 
 
 Corradina looked upon Livio's countenance awhile in silence. 
 
 "Who can look into the heart of man ? " she said then. 
 
 "I have let you look into mine," rejoined Livio, quietly. "Make 
 up your mind ! " 
 
 " Is the German, then, so recovered from his wound that he is in 
 a condition to flee ? " she asked, after a pause. 
 
 " He was prostrated by fever from the wound. That is past ; 
 he is still feeble, but sufficiently recovered to hold out for a 
 short journey. So they have informed me." 
 
 "Well, then, I am ready to do what you wish." 
 
 " And you relinquish your mistrust toward me ? " 
 
 " Do you make that a condition of your assistance ?" 
 
 " No ; I only wish it. I require no conditions of you not a
 
 242 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 single one. If I say to you to conduct the German to my castle and 
 have him cared for there till he is recovered, that is also no 
 condition which I require of you, but only the pressure of circum- 
 stances which demands it." 
 
 "Well, then, Livio, I will believe and trust you," said Corradina. 
 " You will not deceive my confidence, will you ? " 
 
 "Nevermore. Do you wish oaths?" 
 
 "No. I am even ready to do without that what you advise." 
 
 "Good; so we are agreed. I rejoice over that, and hope we shall 
 evermore do so. Give me your hand. I leave you now. I am 
 going to see how far my trusty laborer has advanced with his 
 still work deep under our feet. You may now take for yourself the 
 key to the German's cell. 
 
 "Also till the fourth hour after Ave Maria," replied Corradina, 
 taking with emotion the heavy key which Livio drew forth. 
 
 " Till the fourth hour. Be ready then, and clothed for a ride in 
 the cool night air. I will have a mantle for the German thrown on 
 the mule." 
 
 Livio departed. 
 
 Corradina listened to the receding steps. When they died away 
 she sprang up and went hastily out on the balcony, and there walked 
 to and fro. 
 
 "What trickery lurks behind this?" she asked herself. "Does 
 Livio believe I am really so easy to deceive as to see in all his speech 
 nothing but a sincere goodness, a returning to virtue, or the wish to 
 be able to travel quietly to Ferrara ? O my God ! have you men for 
 this purpose surrounded me for years with the wild scenes of 
 your passions to let me believe in your honesty ? " 
 
 Her step became more slow ; folding her hands, looking at the 
 ground, she moved slowly up and down. 
 
 " If I were to refuse," she said then in a low tone, " Egino would 
 then remain in the dungeons of the Dominicans perhaps long years, 
 perhaps forever ! He has acted too insolently not to call forth 
 their vengeance : he has the secret of my marriage, and they 
 must fear him. There is no hope for him if I do not save him 
 as Livio has planned." 
 
 " Well, then, I will do it ! I will do it even at the risk that 
 even there lies the snare into which Livio wishes to entice me. Yet 
 no, it does not lie there ; it cannot. He cannot wish that his sister- 
 in-law, a woman bearing the name of Savelli, fall into the hands of
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 243 
 
 the Inquisition, and that the world find out that the house which 
 gave to the church three popes, saw a heretic among its members. 
 The snare into which I would fall lies beyond these walls. The 
 passion of his father is a clanger, but also a protection for me. I am 
 to be enticed out of his father's neighborhood to Castle Savello, 
 into his house. Against that alone am I to guard myself. And I 
 will do it ! Let me be out there in the night, on the back of a 
 strong mule, under the protection of Egino, and I will ride, not to 
 Castle Savello, but to Palliano. To her, to his wife, will I flee ; 
 and she will receive me with rejoicing, and protect me, in order to 
 put him in a rage. Oh ! these men. And what a humiliating situa- 
 tion when my safety depends upon having the evil passion of one to 
 protect me from that of the other ! I am horrified at all these men 
 and their wild career. And how long will it be, if I save Egino, till 
 I shall also be filled with dread from his passion ? Also he, also he 
 will begin to utter these speeches which stir me up, which say to 
 me I was born to be a man's true helpmeet ; while I scorn entirely to 
 become the companion of a life which is worthless in the world, like 
 a wave more or less in the sea, but false and cunning as they. 
 In short, that they will make me a wife dishonored, treated with 
 disrespect, as they all are. Will he also talk in that way ? God 
 stand by him, then ; the others I scorn, but him yes, him I could 
 hate. I believe I could kill him if he should open his lips to talk 
 to me as the duke, as Livio presumes to do ! " 
 
 After uttering this in most violent emotion, she sank into silent 
 reflection; then, as if rising out of thought, she smoothed with 
 the palms of her hands the hair from her brow. 
 
 " Let us think now only of saving him," she whispered. 
 
 She went into her chamber, in order to prepare herself for the 
 journey which stood before her in the night. 
 
 Would that she had been able to look down from her lofty balcony 
 into the little house far below, by the gardens of the Colonna, where 
 even now a poor German maiden was preparing for the same 
 dangerous passage which she also wished to go over this night !
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN THE NIGHT. 
 
 |T was, according to our reckoning, the eleventh hour of 
 the night. 
 
 Livio stepped into Corradina's chamber ; he found 
 her prepared for departure. She wore over the bodice 
 a camora of warm cloth, the shapeless, loose-fitting jacket, and 
 over that the long sbernia, a broad over-garment of black velvet with 
 trimming of dark fur. Covering her head was a hat of the same 
 material as the camora with a pearl buckle, otherwise unadorned, 
 without a feather. 
 
 At her girdle hung down under her sbernia a budget, a graceful 
 leathern pocket swelled out round and hard. Corradina must have 
 put in it what it would take in of ready cash and little necessities. 
 
 "You are ready, I see," said Livio; "it is just the right moment. 
 In the castle everything is still, and over in the cloister the monks 
 in their first deep sleep." 
 
 "I am ready. What servants will you furnish me on the way 
 to Castle Savello ? " 
 
 " Niccolo and Giuseppe," answered Livio ; " they wait with the 
 mules in the shadow of the archway down in the court." 
 
 "Only they?" 
 
 " Certainly, only they. Do you think I would have intrusted our 
 secret to more than necessary ? You may yourself suppose that it 
 is convenient for me that the monks never find out, in regard to the 
 stroke which we play them, that I have had a hand in the game. 
 Upon Niccolo and Giuseppe I can depend ; also upon the mason 
 waiting below, in order, when we have accomplished the deed, to 
 close again the opening in the wall, so that no one may notice what 
 has happened, and the monks will believe in a miracle." 
 
 "And who will light us?" 
 
 344
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 245 
 
 " I, myself. My body-servant, Antonio, is waiting out there with 
 torches." 
 
 " Call him in here." 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 " That he may carry down out of my bedroom for me the valise 
 which I have packed with my most necessary articles, and buckle it 
 to the saddle of my mule." 
 
 Livio nodded, and went out to send Antonio upon this errand. 
 Corradina then took her gloves, felt about her girdle to be assured 
 that the dagger stuck in it was there, then stepped out. Outside 
 came Livio with the burning torch of the servant, who went now to 
 attend to Corradina's charge. Livio walked in advance. Through 
 an angular passage they came, treading softly, to a landing of the 
 great stairway, which discharged itself below into the court under 
 the same inclosing archway. Corradina heard the stamping of 
 mules and whispering voices in one of the angles. She went on> 
 following Livio, into the rooms of the basement ; then down into a 
 region which she did not know, into which she had never been 
 before. They passed through a half-open door, behind which a steep 
 stairway descended, at first built out of stones, then hewn out of the 
 rock ; there was at the foot of the stair a vault, the walls of rock, 
 the ceiling arched with dressed stone ; several of these rooms suc- 
 ceeded, separated by immense pillars which supported the vault ; 
 here and there the way was narrowed by partitions of wooden planks 
 blackened by time ; the floor was dirty, so that they now slipped, 
 now trod upon some kind of broken pottery, now sank in as if step- 
 ping upon modern remnants of refuse. The last room was inclosed 
 by a wall in the background. When the light of Livio's torch, 
 which lighted this under-world glaringly and with ghastliness with 
 its red flame, fell upon this wall, Corradina saw that it had been 
 unartistically constructed out of the most unlike materials, out of 
 layers of brick, of bits of old marble, of old building-stones. In the 
 middle of it an opening had been broken large enough to let a man 
 through. The stones that had been broken out lay in orderly heaps 
 near by ; the light of the torch also fell upon a vessel with mortar 
 and upon the tools of a mason. It was as Livio had said, every- 
 thing ready to close the opening again, only the man who should do 
 this was not visible. 
 
 "I have sent him away," whispered Livio; "it is not necessary 
 that he should see you ! "
 
 246 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Corradina did not answer ; she followed courageously through the 
 opening, when Livio had forced himself through in advance of her. 
 Beyond, a room surrounded her similar to the last, only it was 
 smaller, and opposite to the broken wall-opening a passage led out 
 of it farther into the substructions of the cloister. Livio also here 
 still walked in advance, a distance of about twenty steps, to a great 
 expansion of the passage. This expansion formed a circular room, 
 which had the appearance of something like a subterranean chapel. 
 A strong pillar stood in the middle supporting the vault, and to this 
 pillar a little altar was attached ; it stood elevated above a few steps ; 
 a lofty crucifix arose over the gray altar-plate, which no altar-cloth 
 covered. 
 
 Livio extended his torch before him into the room, and pointing 
 to a place which lay next to him of the encircling wall, he said in a 
 low tone : 
 
 "This is the Chapel of the Immured. There are their niches." 
 
 The flame of the torch dwindled and burned less brightly. In the 
 room prevailed a peculiar, inexpressibly disgusting smell, a pesti- 
 lential atmosphere, under whose influence the light of the torch 
 diminished. 
 
 "There are the niches," whispered Livio, while he pointed to 
 the wall. 
 
 Around the chapel deep recesses had been built of masonry or 
 hewn out ; walls either inclosed these entirely in front, and in them 
 was then formed a little quadrangular opening, which allowed one to 
 look out, and through which food could be shoved, or the walls 
 were broken down to about three feet from the floor. 
 
 Corradina was seized with shuddering ; she shrunk back. 
 
 "O God!" she said, "and do the unfortunate ones languish here?" 
 
 " No," whispered Livio, in return ; " there would then be a light 
 burning on the altar : they kindle a light for them, that they may 
 recognize there the Christ who does not help them." 
 
 " To whom they are brought as human sacrifices ! It is horrible ! " 
 whispered Corradina, staring around at the walls, and as if fixed to 
 the floor by fright. 
 
 Livio held the torch higher. Its light fell upon the ugly caricature 
 over the altar, that appeared dark, blackened by time and dust, 
 unspeakably frightful with its disfigured features. 
 
 "O my God, what have they made of him ? " whispered Corradina, 
 taking a deep breath.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 247 
 
 "That which they need, an idol," answered Livio. "But let us 
 not make observations about that. Here, behind the pillar, you see, 
 a narrow stairway leads up into a passage in the upper story ; it is 
 the third door, you know. Have you the key ? " 
 
 "I have it," she replied almost inaudibly. "Give me the torch." 
 
 "Wait we will light the altar-lamp ; I think there will still be oil 
 enough in it. It would make me gray to be obliged to stay behind, 
 here, in the dark." 
 
 He pushed 'nearer to him the earthen vessel half filled with a 
 thick, dirty oil, which, serving as a lamp, stood upon the altar, and 
 he succeeded in lighting the half-burned wick therein with the 
 torch. It crackled awhile, and threw out little sparks ; then the 
 slender wick began to burn brighter, and sparingly lighted up the 
 round chapel room, the altar, the picture of Christ over it, and the 
 stone surface of the pillar behind it. When Corradina withdrew in 
 order to enter courageously upon the course she was to make alone, 
 and when she disappeared with the torch behind the pillar, the lamp 
 threw only a feeble twilight around ; it sufficed only to make visible 
 the circular wall and the niches in it. 
 
 Livio seated himself upon the steps of the altar. He listened 
 to the steps of Corradina gently and carefully mounting a stair. 
 They died away after a few moments. Then all was still ; only 
 the lamp sputtered ; it struggled with the air in this room. Livio's 
 breast also began to struggle with it. He breathed with difficulty. 
 And what was that? Livio thought he heard a suppressed 
 breathing; he turned his head and looked behind him. It was 
 nothing. 
 
 Livio waited long. 
 
 Also outside, up in the castle court, the men tarrying there waited 
 long. 
 
 The mules, placed in the shadow of the archway, began to 
 stamp with waxing impatience the broad stone slabs with their 
 hoofs. To Niccolo and Giuseppe, who held them by the reins, 
 to Livio's trusted servant, Antonio, who clasped to one of the 
 beasts Corradina's valise, had stepped up the mason, who awaited 
 the appearance of Livio, and the order to repair below and take 
 up again his work on the penetrated wall. He came to them to 
 shorten the time of waiting through chat. At length, also, out 
 of some lurking-place in the broad, adjacent court, slipped three 
 wild-looking figures with goatskins on their legs and firearms on
 
 248 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 the back ; genuine bandits, than which the Sabine or Volsci Moun- 
 tains never produced any more picturesque and more forbidding 
 in appearance. 
 
 "Holy body of the Madonna!" exclaimed one; "if nothing is- 
 to come of the affair to-night, Sor Antonio, His Excellency should 
 tell us, that we may go and sleep." 
 
 " You can sleep the whole day to-morrow," glumly answered 
 Antonio, an elderly, meager man, with a slow, peculiarly muffled 
 nature. " Go back, so that the Lady Countess may not see you when 
 she comes with the German whom she believes herself to have 
 rescued. You know, indeed, she must not be aware " 
 
 "We know that, we know that," said another ; "but we should also* 
 like to know " 
 
 "Benedetto! A man who would like to know!" said Antonio, 
 interrupting him. "The less you know, you blockhead, so much 
 the better for you. Do you comprehend that, just so you know 
 enough for your job ! " 
 
 " If His Excellency wishes us to wait still longer, let him send out 
 to us a brazier," remarked the third of the bandits, wrapping himself 
 closer in his mantle. 
 
 " Or a brazier with liquid fire in it, which warms the stomach and 
 keeps one awake," said the first. 
 
 " The devil ! " here said Giuseppe in a low tone ; " that would not 
 be bad, Sor Antonio, for the night is cold, and waiting makes the 
 stomach empty." 
 
 " If these dogs, whom the Countess Corradina must not see, will 
 creep back into their kennel, I will go and fetch what you wish," 
 whispered Sor Antonio. "Go, Lanfranco," he turned then to the 
 first of the three bandits, "go, and press yourself into the shadow. I 
 will bring you then hither a warm jug, as you wish, but be still. 
 Niccolo, give your mule a kick in the belly, so that the beast will 
 leave off his stamping." 
 
 Niccolo snatched the head of his mule high up by the bit. 
 
 " Accursed beast ! " he exclaimed, " I will stick a knife into your 
 body if you do not stand." 
 
 Giuseppe stroked the neck of his beast to keep it patient. 
 
 " My dear, my sister," he said, while doing it, " patience, patience ; 
 then you shall carry the most beautiful countess into the mountains, 
 far, far away ; my sister, you shall carry her, only you ! " 
 
 Antonio had, in the meantime, turned and passed diagonally
 
 LUTHER IN ROME, 249 
 
 through the archway to the stair leading upward into the interior, 
 when, from up in the inner part of the building, from far off, and per- 
 ceptible only on account of the stillness of night, one perceived the 
 shrill note of a whistle. 
 
 "Ecco ! They come," said the men standing around the mules ; 
 and the three bandits slipped away, in order not to be caught by 
 Livio, who had commanded them to show themselves for the first 
 time when they were outside of the city. 
 
 On the first stair-landing which Antonio reached he remained 
 standing. He heard the shrill whistle again. 
 
 "Corpo di bacco" he whispered to himself ; "that sounds out of the 
 rooms of the old man ! We shall fail if he mixes himself in the 
 affair ! " 
 
 Antonio took one of the two burning torches which were stuck 
 into the wall-rings on the stair-landing, then he mounted higher, and 
 having arrived above he passed into the passage, in order to bring 
 out of some room the wine which should appease the impatience of 
 the people ; yet before he had reached the door of this room he saw, 
 at the end of the passage, a form emerge, which was likewise carry- 
 ing a torch in the hand and coming quickly to him. 
 
 ' Eh, Antonio, what is the matter there ? " exclaimed the figure, 
 with a loud voice. 
 
 " Giovan-Battista, you ? " answered Antonio, with displeasure. 
 "What do you want? Why are you awake and up?" 
 
 " The old lord has wakened me," said Giovan-Battista. " He says 
 he has perceived in the court the hoofstrokes of horses or mules, 
 and other noises. What has happened ? What is going on ? " 
 
 " It seems to me the old lord has ears like a mole," replied 
 Antonio. "Why doesn't he stick his gray head into his pillow and 
 sleep ? " 
 
 "Ask him yourself. In the first place, speak and give me infor- 
 mation." 
 
 " Information ? About what ? " 
 
 "About what is taking place. Why you are here, Sor Antonio ? " 
 
 " Does that concern you ? " 
 
 "Not me, but His Excellency wishes to learn." 
 
 " Then tell him Lanfranco and his two nephews have come from 
 Albano, and have brought four barrels of oil. I go now to bring the 
 fellows a drink of wine."
 
 250 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " You lie, in fact, Sor Antonio ; but I will go to tell him what you 
 say the devil ! There he is himself." 
 
 The Duke of Aricia came striding down the passage. He was just 
 placing a leathern girdle around the long robe into which he had 
 thrown himself ; it was provided with a cowl, and he looked like a 
 monk as he came quickly striding forward, only it was evident when 
 he reached the light of the torch that the robe was of dark-red 
 velvet, and too costly for a monk. 
 
 "Antonio," he said, with his hawk eyes blinking, and on that 
 account holding his hand as a shield against the dazzling flame, 
 " whither are you going ? What means that noise in the court ? " 
 
 " Your Excellency," put in Giovan-Battista, " it is Lanfranco with 
 his two nephews, who bring four barrels of oil on their beasts of 
 burden from Albano " 
 
 "Go forward with the torch," broke in the duke, without listening 
 to his words. 
 
 "Excellency, do not go, but let me give you information," said 
 Antonio, who in an instant had calculated that if he could detain the 
 duke with a narration, he would thus create for his master just that 
 much space of time in order there below to carry away Corradina 
 and the German in the saddles, if, perhaps, Livio was just now 
 returning with them. 
 
 "Well, then, speak," answered the duke. 
 
 "Giovan-Battista should not hear it, Your Excellency." 
 
 "Then step back, Giovan-Battista," ordered the duke to his body- 
 servant. 
 
 Giovan-Battista drew himself farther back into the corridor. 
 
 "My Lord," now began Antonio, "has forced his way into the 
 prisons over there under the cloister " 
 
 " Ah ! Livio has forced his way in there, and without telling it to 
 me ? " 
 
 " Just so, Your Excellency. I have been compelled some days ago 
 to speak with one of the lay brethren over there, Fra Alessio, he 
 is called ; and he is a good-natured old boy, who comes from my 
 neighborhood, from Marino at home, and a kind of a cousin he is ; a 
 man, Your Excellency, like a child, who " 
 
 "To the devil with your Alessio ! Go on, go on ! " exclaimed the 
 duke, angrily. 
 
 " From Alessio I have found out where they have confined the 
 young German count, and then I have had him take a wax impres-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 251 
 
 sion of the lock of his cell. It is the third when one goes up out of 
 the Chapel of the Immured, and comes into the passage above ; also 
 where the Chapel of the Immured lies, has Fra Alessio described to 
 me " 
 
 "All out of good nature ? " asked the duke, interrupting. 
 
 " As you please to call it, Your Excellency," responded Antonio. 
 " Out of good nature, perhaps, also, a little out of excitement over 
 fifty scudi which I had brought him from Count Livio, and had stuck 
 into the sleeve-opening of his gown." 
 
 "Goon." 
 
 "Thereupon Count Livio has had a key made from the wax im- 
 pression, and as he was ready; to-day, in secrecy, in the twilight, he 
 has conducted a mason into the vaults under the castle. What the 
 man has done there and what he is still to do, he can tell you him- 
 self, for he is down in the court, awaiting Count Livio's return." 
 
 " And Livio is even now down in the vaults ? He will bring the 
 German out ? And is he alone ? " 
 
 "No ; the Countess Corradina accompanied him." 
 
 " Corradina is with him ? Holy Mother ! And all that behind 
 my back ! But what are the mules for ? If he wishes to get the 
 German away from the monks, what need has he of the mules ? 
 Have we not here in the castle dungeons in order to .confine a male- 
 factor, and firm stones to lock him therein ? " 
 
 " I do not know, Your Excellency. Countess Corradina appears to 
 wish to ride away with the German, accompanied by Niccolo and Giu- 
 seppe. Besides, Count Livio has also had Lanfranco and his nephews 
 to come ; they shall follow unobserved. And what more they are to 
 do I know not ; Count Livio has not given his orders ; I do not 
 know them." 
 
 "Acddente!" muttered the duke between his teeth, stepping quickly 
 forward down the passage. "This tricky Livio, who wishes to steal 
 the German from the monks and Corradina from me. Giovan-Bat- 
 tista," he called, turning ; " where are you, blockhead ? Listen to me 
 Antonio, forward; I will see for myself what your master is doing 
 down there." 
 
 "To tell you the truth candidly," whispered Antonio, now already 
 near his hastening excellency, who was descending the stairway lead- 
 ing down into the court, "it is preferable to me that you have come 
 to see about it ; Count Livio tarries so immeasurably long, there
 
 252 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 has fallen upon my heart a heavy anxiety about what can have hap- 
 pened to him." 
 
 "Anxiety? What is there to happen to him?" said the duke. 
 "Granted, even, that he should be surprised by the monks he is 
 not the man to let them cut off from him the way of retreat ; and 
 I do not think the idea will occur to them of trying to cut off Livio 
 .Savelli's retreat. How long is it since Livio went ?" 
 
 "Almost a half-hour, Your Excellency." 
 
 " A half-hour ! Most blessed ! that is truly a long time. And 
 why have you not followed him, then, Antonio ? " 
 
 "Because he has expressly forbidden it, and because I had not the 
 -desire to fall under ban, which Count Livio risks more easily than 
 his body-servant, Antonio Tarmucci." 
 
 "In spite of that you will now let it come under ban, Antonio 
 Tarmucci," said the duke, redoubling his steps. "You will call the 
 mason hither, and you two will then lead me the way which Livio 
 has gone with the Countess Corradina." 
 
 They had arrived down in the archway. Antonio walked quickly 
 over to where the men stood near the mules, beckoned to the mason, 
 then turned, followed by the latter ; after a few moments they had 
 been received by the rooms into which Livio and Corradina had 
 disappeared. Antonio went in front with his torch, the duke 
 followed, the mason and Giovan-Battista, with the second torch, 
 closed up the rear, on the way down the stairs and through the dark 
 cellar rooms. 
 
 They moved in silence ; they reached the penetrated wall ; the 
 Duke of Aricia stepped close to the opening, listened, stretched 
 his head forward, then passed with courageous step into the dark 
 room beyond, while he, turning back, whispered to his son's body- 
 servant : 
 
 " Everything is still. I see only a shimmer of light ; it must be in 
 Ihe chapel of which you spoke, Antonio."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 
 
 IN THE CHAPEL OF THE IMMURED. 
 
 |HE light was glimmering out of this chapel. We have 
 there left Livio sitting upon the steps of the altar, await- 
 ing Corradina's return. The minutes had gone by slowly 
 to him. It had begun to chill him in the musty, damp- 
 chilled room ; a shudder passed over his limbs. Staring upon the 
 niches before him, he felt his glances gradually becoming dazed, 
 as if fettered by them through something unspeakably dismal. 
 There, in the twilight depths of these niches, behind the half-broken- 
 down walls by which these were inclosed, did there not move 
 shadows, shadows of something living, slowly rising, and, again, 
 sinking down, as if these niches still had their occupants, their 
 victims, as if there were still in the dark recesses of the walls, 
 beings convulsed by the death-struggle ? 
 
 It was stupid and foolish to look at it, since it was only the effect 
 of the gentle movements of the oil-lamp upon the altar, which was 
 still sputtering there from time to time, and carrying on the struggle 
 for its existence in the heavy atmosphere ; it was stupid thus to 
 stare upon something which was not there at all ; and still Livio was 
 filled with dread thereby. 
 
 He heard .again also a breath. Foolishness! As if forms that 
 were not there could breathe ! And then a slight crash, as if a sole 
 had been gently pressed upon the floor. Was there something 
 living in these vaults ? No, nothing ! Nothing but the silent 
 shadows were there which attracted Livio's glance, and from 
 which he turned himself away by an effort of will. 
 
 He felt for his girdle, and drew forth the dagger hanging- down 
 from the girdle by two silver chains. The handle was round and 
 engraved, the blade three-edged. Livio tested the point upon the 
 nail of his left thumb. Still it was too dusky in the room to be able 
 to see how deep the point cut in. Livio placed the weapon between
 
 254 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 his knees upon the altar-steps under him, drew his knees up and hid 
 his face in his hands, in order not to be obliged to look any more over 
 into the recesses. 
 
 " She stays a long time," he whispered. " Perhaps he is dead , 
 perhaps Alessio has let me be deceived ; perhaps my first stroke was 
 enough, and there is no need of the second. Then, however, how to 
 get her to Castle Savello ? " 
 
 Awhile he sat there in this way ; more minutes long in which he 
 might have busied himself with plotting how he should allure Corra- 
 dina to his castle at Albano, if Egino was dead from his wound. 
 Then he heard the breathing again. 
 
 A strong, no more to be mistaken, almost snorting expiration 
 close before him. 
 
 Livio raised his head, and his wide-open eyes perceived something 
 which filled him with a perfectly unutterable dread. 
 
 His heart ceased to beat ; his eyes seemed bursting from their 
 sockets while they stared upon this object, which had grown up out 
 of the floor before him. 
 
 There immediately before him dazzlingly lighted by all the 
 light which the lamp behind Livio could emit, stood a figure of a 
 man, if it was not some hideous offspring of the night, a devil 
 an inexpressibly ugly, grinning head, with wild, gray hair grown low 
 down upon the narrow brow ; with a nose like that of a mask ; under 
 this a hump; and hanging down right and left of this two long 
 arms, long enough to be able almost to touch the floor. 
 
 It was frightful. Standing before Livio in these surroundings with 
 this suddenness, in the red glow of the struggling oil-light, it was a 
 surprise which could deprive a man of weaker nerves than Livio's of 
 his senses. 
 
 The man, or the ghost, or the devil, whatever it was, grinned ; 
 under the thick, protruding lips gleamed forth huge, long teeth. 
 Still he appeared not to have stepped to Livio so stealthily with any 
 hostile intent ; and when he lifted his arm, it was perhaps because 
 he believed Livio to be asleep, and wished to waken him. 
 
 But Livio's fright did not permit him to make such observations. 
 In the same instant when the heart, standing still in the first 
 moments, began again with powerful throbs to propel the blood, 
 which suddenly returned to him, he followed the instinct of fear, of 
 self-preservation ; he seized the dagger between his knees, and the 
 blade flashed in the light of the lamp. It cut already the cheek of
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 255 
 
 the frightful form there before him ; when just as quickly a powerful 
 fist laid upon his throat a grasp like that of a cramping-iron, and a 
 long arm stretched itself out so far that Livio could only thrust 
 about in the air with his dagger, but no more reach his antagonist. 
 
 " Now stab ! " was growled forth in hollow tones from the breast 
 of the monster, while Livio's struggling to free himself only had the 
 effect of causing the throttling fist to grasp his throat with redoubled 
 force. 
 
 And in this instant another, a second form, was there near the 
 first, throwing itself between the latter and Livio. Livio perceived 
 it, and his hand flourishing his dagger thrust toward it, and struck 
 it ; that he felt, but then it became dim before his eyes. He could no 
 longer distinguish who or what this second supposed antagonist 
 was ; he could no longer hear how a voice whispered eritreatingly : 
 
 " Let loose, let him loose, for God's sake ! You are choking him, 
 Uncle." 
 
 " If I let him loose, he will call for help and call the monks hither, 
 who will burn us up," exclaimed Uncle Kraps between his teeth. 
 " I will make him cold, the dog, for stabbing me! " 
 
 Irmgard wished to make an effort to tear away the dreadful hand 
 of her uncle from Livio's neck, but in this instant she felt herself 
 suddenly become powerless ; besides, she felt a violent pain be- 
 tween her breast and shoulder. She sank back, gliding down at the 
 side of her uncle. Thus she sank upon the uppermost altar-step. 
 
 "Now you will not stab again!" said Uncle Kraps, without 
 observing her, with a grin of triumph over his fearful strength dis- 
 torting his visage. " You will not stab again ; now lie there in com- 
 pany with your knife ! " 
 
 He threw Livio, who no longer moved, full length upon the 
 floor. 
 
 "O my God!" whispered Irmgard, speaking with difficulty 
 " Uncle, Uncle, what have you done ! You have strangled him, and 
 I could not help it I became so weak. We must get away, away ! 
 Help me get up, and then away ! " 
 
 " Are you struck ? " said Uncle Kraps, stooping to Irmgard, to take 
 hold of her and lift her up. 
 
 " Struck here ! " 
 
 Irmgard pointed with her left hand toward her right breast, and 
 lifted herself up. 
 
 " Come, only come," she added ; " if only the lantern is not gone
 
 256 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 out ! I let it fall to the floor in fright when I saw what you were 
 doing." 
 
 Uncle Kraps took Irmgard up, in order to carry her forth, when a 
 bright light suddenly fell upon the chapel ; softly hastening steps, at 
 the same time, with the loud crackling of a resinous torch, became 
 audible, double steps, as if of two, who were approaching. 
 
 " Some one is coming ; away, away ! " gasped Irmgard, hastening a 
 step forward. 
 
 Then, however, she fell all doubled up. 
 
 Uncle Kraps was just on the point of taking her into his arms 
 like a child, when a hand was placed upon his shoulder. 
 
 Turning his head, he looked into the pale face of a man glancing 
 at him with fever-lighted eyes, a face that he knew. Near it 
 was another, that of a woman strange to him. 
 
 "Count Egino!" gasped Irmgard in this moment. "O Count 
 Egino you you rescued ? " 
 
 Over the Uncle's countenance spread a pecular grin as of defiance, 
 and at the same time of shame. As if Egino's sudden appearance 
 were the most simple and explicable thing in the world, he pointed 
 to the corpse of Livio, and gasped forth, rather than spoke the 
 words, breathing hard : 
 
 " I have made him cold ! He has stabbed me ! " 
 
 Uncle Kraps had evidently at this moment only sense and thought 
 for the one deed that he had strangled a man ; only the one impulse 
 to justify his deed, like a surprised child. Egino, however, stared 
 with horrified glance upon him, upon Irmgard, who was drawn up in 
 the arms of her uncle now supporting her, upon the corpse of Livio, 
 around upon the room, and with weak voice he stammered : 
 
 "What a dream this is, what a dream ! " 
 
 " It is no dream that you see," whispered a voice, the voice of the 
 female form which stood near him, carrying a torch in one hand, 
 with the other encircling Egino's upper arm. "The corpse is 
 Livio's ! Who are these people ? " she added, hastily. 
 
 " My best friends," said Egino, still continuously staring upon the 
 group as if he did not trust his senses. 
 
 " Count Egino, come, come and follow us ! " exclaimed Irmgard, 
 with difficulty, while she closed her eyes, and let her head fall mo- 
 tionless upon the shoulder of her uncle. 
 
 Uncle Kraps walked away in a direction exactly opposite to that 
 from which Corradina had previously come with Livio. He carried
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 257 
 
 Irmgard like a child upon his left arm, with the right he picked up, 
 in going, a lantern lying upon the floor ; it still was burning, and let 
 one descry the dark passage opening in the chapel wall, to which 
 Uncle Kraps approached with his burden, lifting the lantern high 
 up. 
 
 " Let us follow ; let us follow ; let us flee with them ! " exclaimed 
 Egino, making a few steps forward with tottering foot. 
 
 " With them ? " said Corradina. " Yes, yes, let us flee with them ; 
 what else remains for us ! Come, come ; support yourself more upon 
 me; lay your arm upon my shoulder, come ! " 
 
 She led, almost carried him. Her right arm had enclasped him, 
 his left hand rested upon her left shoulder ; with the left hand she 
 bore the torch. 
 
 "We must go with them," she said, "and see if there is an exit 
 into liberty. I dare not go back whence I came. We would pass 
 for Livio's murderers. I would rather, since you are too weak to 
 kill a man, they would kill us both on the spot ! " 
 
 "And to those others," replied Egino, quickly, "you may with im- 
 punity intrust your fate." 
 
 " I am compelled to do so. Then on ! God will protect us ! " 
 
 They disappeared in the narrow passage, through which the yellow, 
 dazzling light of their torch flickered before them. 
 
 Into the chapel the former stillness and twilight again entered, 
 with which the little lamp on the altar struggled. 
 
 Thus a considerable time fled by, till from the side of the castle 
 steps and voices were heard ; it was the duke and his companions. 
 
 Antonio came first. 
 
 Antonio was the only one who, through Fra Alessio, had any 
 definite knowledge of the arrangement of the rooms, and according 
 to Alessio's description, he had also been able to initiate his master 
 therein. 
 
 The rest followed the duke ; all four had soon reached the chapel, 
 where the little oil lamp burned on the altar. Now the bright torch- 
 light poured itself into the twilight room of the Chapel of the 
 Immured. 
 
 " Most holy Madonna ! " exclaimed Antonio, espying the lifeless 
 body of his master. 
 
 The next moment the duke stood near him. 
 
 "The master, the master, -he has been killed!" exclaimed 
 Antonio.
 
 258 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Already the duke had stooped over and taken him by the 
 shoulder, as if to lift him up ; then he hastened to rise again. With 
 a cry which trembled with peculiar dismalness, echoing in the dread- 
 ful chapel, he exclaimed : 
 
 " Iddio ! Livio ! He is dead, he is dead ! " 
 
 Antonio threw the light of his torch on the pale, disfigured face 
 with the protruding tongue, the outbursting, wide-open eyes. 
 
 " He has been strangled, choked ! " exclaimed Antonio. 
 
 The duke smote his hands together; rubbed his temples with 
 them, as if to hold them around his head, that it might not burst,, 
 with all the horrible thoughts which rushed through his brain ; 
 wrung his hands again, and said in faltering accents : 
 
 "O God ! who has killed him ? Who has killed my child ? " 
 
 " Poor Master ? " said Antonio, kneeling down near the body of 
 his master and breaking into a flood of tears. 
 
 "Where is the murderer, that I may tear him in pieces, that I 
 may make him die a thousand deaths ! " exclaimed the duke suddenly, 
 in an outburst of rage, raising his folded fists high above his head. 
 
 "The murderer?" exclaimed Giovan-Battista, struggling for 
 breath ; " where will he be ? Up there ! " 
 
 " Whereabouts up there ? " asked the duke. 
 
 " Eh, do I know ? But yet a child sees into that ! The monks 
 have surprised the poor Lord Livio in his sacrilege in forcing his 
 way into the dungeons of the Inquisition, and have choked him for 
 it. The Countess Corradina, as less guilty, they may have dragged 
 up stairs there, and secluded her somewhere." 
 
 " Impossible ! " cried the duke. " How would they have dared to 
 do it ? And still, how can it otherwise have been ? How can it 
 otherwise have happened ? O Antonio, Giovan-Battista, run, bring 
 me weapons here ; wake my people ; we will strike them dead, all 
 of them, to the last one. We will burn the cloister down ; we will 
 put powder into the vaults, and send everything that stands over it 
 to the devil, in revenge." 
 
 While the duke, with frothing mouth, continued to vent himself 
 in threats against the supposed murderers of his .son, the mason 
 plucked by the sleeve Antonio, who was kneeling over the corpse. 
 
 " Sor Antonio," he said, " look here once." 
 
 Antonio arose and followed him. 
 
 The mason, who, during the foregoing, had been looking around
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 259 
 
 the chapel, led him to the opening in the circular wall through 
 which Egino and the rest had saved themselves. 
 
 He pointed to a drop of resinous matter lying upon the floor, 
 which was still smoking, and which had evidently dripped from a 
 torch. 
 
 "Body of the Madonna!" said Antonio, "here is another way 
 which does not lead up into the cloister, but probably into the open 
 air." 
 
 He went with the mason farther into the passage. Holding the 
 torch to the floor, he found, from time to time, more of such drops 
 of resin. 
 
 The duke and Giovan-Battista followed them as they were dis- 
 appearing. 
 
 " Whither will you go ? Whither does this passage lead ? " cried 
 the duke to Antonio. 
 
 "We are examining it," answered the latter; "we find drops of 
 resin and footprints. More persons have, a short time since, come 
 through the passage, Your Excellency." 
 
 What Antonio said was not to be doubted. The floor of the pas- 
 sage was of rock, but -here and there it presented a soft, muddy 
 earth, as if formed out of layers of dust centuries old, and here 
 were also fresh but. confused footprints. 
 
 The men pressed forward ; they came, after they had gone a dis- 
 tance of perhaps sixty steps, to the end of the passage. An old, 
 rusty, iron-grated door formed of strong bars stood open ; it stood 
 in a large, dark room, had evidently been forced open, for the iron 
 slot in which the bolt had been held had indeed been bent to one 
 side by some kind of strong instrument, and lifted half out of the 
 old wall. 
 
 Antonio lifted his torch higher, in order to light up the dismal 
 room into which they were now looking. 
 
 The wall-work showed that they had to do with a very ancient 
 structure, quadrangular, with the corners cut off and arched, some 
 kind of an old temple substruction ; still, there must be somewhere 
 a connection with the outer world, for a gentle draft began to blow 
 back the flames of the torches ; Antonio, also, after making some 
 steps forward, cried out, while violently bounding back : 
 
 " Back, back ; the floor is broken through here ! " 
 
 All yielded back, in order not to precipitate themselves with the 
 broken vault upon which they stood, as was shown by the rim of an
 
 2<5o LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 opening a few steps before their feet. Only the duke tore the torch 
 out of the hand of Antonio, and stepped forward, close to the edge r 
 in order to throw the light down. 
 
 "There lies a heap of rubbish under there ; one can easily spring 
 down," he said. 
 
 " For what purpose, Your Excellency ? " replied Antonio, taking 
 the torch back out of his hand. The fresh air streaming in to meet 
 us shows that those who have broken through the grated door have 
 found an exit down there. And so all is explained. The German 
 has indeed been freed from his prison-cell, but, in the Chapel of the 
 Immured, he has refused to follow Count Livio. Your son, Your 
 Excellency, has wished to force him ; the German has struggled with 
 him, and choked him, and has then fled this way with the Countess 
 Corradina." 
 
 " Then this German, who was still sick and enfeebled by his 
 wound," said the duke, shaking his head, "must possess the 
 strength of a lion, or the Countess Corradina must have aided 
 him with all her powers. Perhaps it was she who knew this way 
 and told him of it." 
 
 " Perhaps," responded Antonio. " But come back, my lord. My 
 advice is that we carry Count Livio away into the castle ; that the 
 mason, as he was ordered, build up again the forced opening in the 
 wall, and the monks will never learn that Count Livio, that we, 
 ourselves, have broken into their domains. They may ascribe to a 
 miracle the manner in which the German has escaped them. It is 
 better so, that upon the house of Savelli no suspicion fall of having 
 seized upon their right, and of having committed a sacrilege." 
 
 " And who, who obtains revenge for me ? Would not these monks 
 be just the best bloodhounds to find out for me the fugitives?" 
 
 A low, lingering note trembled feebly through the dark halls. 
 
 " Come, come, Your Excellency ; the matin-bell is being rung. 
 They will be wakened in the cloister ; let us hasten, or else they 
 will hear us, and take us by surprise." 
 
 Antonio then seized by the arm the duke, still standing at the 
 edge of the vault-opening with folded arms, staring into the black 
 depths, and drew him away. 
 
 They hastened back, and after a short time Livio's body had dis- 
 appeared from the Chapel of the Immured. In the last cellar-room 
 under the castle of the Savelli, however, was the mason, with 
 Antonio's help, busily engaged in replacing stone upon stone in the
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 261 
 
 breach of the wall, so that only a thorough investigation could enable 
 one to discover what had happened here. 
 
 Up in the castle, in the room in which we have. already once 
 looked upon the corpse of a Savelli, feigning life, however, and 
 arrayed for a wedding, lay, upon Luca's bed, the rigid body of his 
 brother ; and near the bed, looking down upon him with staring 
 glance, stood the Duke of Aricia, pale, quaking, murmuring inco- 
 herent words. 
 
 Giovan-Battista, who glided with noiseless step over the carpet, in 
 order to light countless waxen candles upon the silver candelabra, 
 did not understand them. 
 
 Niccolo and Giuseppe, however, sprung long since upon the 
 mules, which had waited so long in the court, now through the night 
 hastened to the castles in the mountains, to Aricia, to Albano ; 
 other servants to dependents and clients in the city, to let it be 
 known that the last heir of the house of Savelli had been murdered.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BROTHER MARTIN. 
 
 JT was the hour of noon of the following day. Brother 
 Martin had, in the morning, quietly taken his language les- 
 son with the old Hebrew. Now, he was much excited by 
 that which his order-brethren were telling at the noon- 
 day meal of what had taken place. The rumor of the death, of the 
 murder of Count Savelli had penetrated even into the cloister walls, 
 as it had now already been heard in every house in the city. They 
 also knew of the disappearance of the Countess Corradina ; and the 
 hasty conclusion that she had killed her kinsman, was too closely 
 bordering upon it not to be immediately formed by each one who 
 manifested any interest in the occurrence. 
 
 Of the flight of Egino the brethren had not spoken. The sons of 
 St. Dominicus must not have found it for their good to let that 
 become known. One knew nothing but the two facts that the 
 Countess Corradina, in the past night, had wished to ride to a castle 
 in the mountains (wherefore, in the darkness of the night, was a 
 mystery ) ; and that to the people of her retinue, waiting ready in 
 the court, the news had come that Count Livio, the heir of the 
 house, had been found strangled or poisoned, and that the Countess 
 Corradina had fled, no one could say upon what road. 
 
 Brother Martin was, of course, surprised and excited over all this ; 
 he was also wonderfully moved by the way and manner in which the 
 news had been received at the table of the monks. It was about as 
 one to-day, in a great city, in the morning receives the news that 
 there has been a fire in one quarter of the town. It was then a 
 customary thing in Rome for one to find in the morning hours three 
 or four murdered men upon the streets. 
 
 They would not have spoken of the accident at all, perhaps, if it 
 had not occurred in so great a house as that of the Savelli, and if it 
 had not possessed the charm of mystery. 
 
 262
 
 LUTHER'S MEMORIAL AT WORMS.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 263 
 
 Brother Martin had returned to his cell, and was on the point of 
 going out to Signor Callisto Minucci's, to talk with him about this 
 event, when he heard out in the passage, called very loudly and by 
 several voices at once : 
 
 "Fra Martino ! Fra Martino ! " 
 
 At the same time, just as he shoved back the bolt, the door of his 
 cell was hastily torn open ; two- monks, behind whom stood a man 
 clad in a waistcoat of dark-red damask, with a short, black mantel 
 over it, rushed in, and cried at the same time, in excitement : 
 
 " Fra Martino, you shall come to His Holiness ; the Holy Father 
 wishes to talk with you." 
 
 "With me ? " asked Brother Martin, in alarm. 
 
 " So it is ; here is a courier who is to bring you in haste to the 
 Vatican." 
 
 The courier made with the uplifted hand that gesture which 
 appears as a waving off, and yet which, to an Italian, signifies, 
 " Come here ! " 
 
 At the same time he said : 
 
 If you are the German monk who recently accompanied Monsig- 
 nore di Ragusa to the house of Raphael Santi, you must, without 
 delay, just as you are, follow me to the Holy Father." 
 
 " I am the German monk," answered Brother Martin, "and I will 
 follow you ; I am ready to go out." 
 
 The courier turned about. 
 
 Brother Martin followed him, and the monks, in astonishment, 
 looked after them both. 
 
 " What does the Holy Father intend to do with the poor Fra 
 Martino ? " they asked themselves, and then went to spread the 
 news in the whole cloister. 
 
 In order to answer this question, let us go in advance of Brother 
 Martin to the high-towering castle into which the German brother 
 has been ordered to the presence of Christ's vicegerent.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST IN THE VATICAN. 
 
 |T is an earnest, severe, commanding countenance ! This 
 man, who is the never-dying Moses of the people of God, 
 commissioned to lead them as shield and shepherd through 
 the wilderness of mortal life into the heavenly Canaan, 
 not according to a pillar of fire, but truly according to the divine illumi- 
 nation, which blows upon him from the gentle vibrations of the dove 
 of the Holy Spirit fluttering around his head this man had some- 
 thing of the form and features of Moses, as Michael Angelo has 
 carved out the powerful statue of the latter in marble. Giuliano 
 della Rovere, as Pope Julius II., was sixty-seven years of age, but 
 his powerful and firmly built frame stood erect, as is fitting in a com- 
 mander. His rather blunt than sharply chiseled features evinced 
 that he had lived, lived in labor, in exhausting excitement, and in 
 enjoyment ; but the marks of growing feebleness and relaxation 
 were not in them : the man was full of elastic strength in his step 
 and in his gestures, which became something violent, angular, when 
 excitement broke through the assumed dignity. He spoke abruptly, 
 loudly, and with sharp accent ; his voice easily took on a tone which 
 sounded like anger. 
 
 The characteristics of his appearance were ennobled by the gray 
 beard, which, in spite of the long-disused style, he had allowed to 
 grow to its natural length. 
 
 In one of the chambers of the Palazzo Vecchio, that part of the 
 Vatican building which, as we said before, was at that time covered 
 along its front by the scaffolds of the loggia structure, he was walk- 
 ing to and fro, in a large and beautiful room with heavily carved 
 wooden ceiling adorned with paint and gilding Costly stuff wrought 
 into tapestry covered the walls, and a great carpet extended itself 
 through the chamber, at whose upper end a table and a high-backed 
 easy-chair stood upon a platform. Upon the table were a high 
 
 354
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 265 
 
 crucifix, writing materials, some paper and parchments with seals 
 attached ; near the chair a footstool. By the wall of the room were 
 some divans, and in one of the deep window-niches a little table 
 with mosaic top, upon which stood a decanter, a Venetian glass, and 
 two gilded bowls, one containing fruits, the other confections. 
 Julius II. was not intemperate, but he loved wine. His enemies 
 accused him of liking it too well. In his long, white house-robe he 
 walked slowly to and fro ; but he interrupted his course, from time 
 to time, to step up to the window-niche and drink the dark-red juice 
 of the grape contained by the decanter. 
 
 There were, besides him, four or five other men present in the 
 room. Three of them we have seen before. One was Padre An- 
 selmo, the sacristan and father-confessor of the Pope; the second, 
 the fat man with the florid face and the strongly squinting eyes, was 
 Monsignore Tommaso Inghirami, his savant, the man who gave 
 information where any question arose for the settling of which we 
 to-day have recourse to an encyclopedia ; finally, the third was 
 Padre Geronimo, the Dominican, the Inquisitor of heretical deprav- 
 ity. The first two sat upon the long divan by the wall, where a nod 
 from the Pope had permitted them to take their places ; Padre 
 Geronimo stood in the middle of the room, while Julius II. was 
 speaking with him and walking past him up and down. 
 
 " It is, indeed, a very mysterious story, Your Holiness," said 
 Padre Geronimo. "Count Livio Savelli is dead, is choked to death ; 
 Countess Corradina has fled ; but can she have choked him, she, a 
 weak woman, choke a strong man ? No ; certainly not. For choking 
 there is needed the fist of a man, and a strong and sinewy one at 
 that ! " 
 
 " And where did they find him strangled ? " asked the Pope. 
 
 "That I cannot tell you, Holy Father, for the Duke of Aricia 
 gave only evasive answers. But in the same preceding night in 
 which Livio Savelli was put to death, the German count, Corradina's 
 lover, as we have said, has also fled from our keeping. We know 
 not who has led him out of the cloister ; we know, however, that he 
 has escaped, and we have been able to pursue the course which 
 other persons, whose tracks we found, had taken with him. Have 
 these men, not satisfied with slipping secretly into our cloister and 
 freeing the German, afterward forced their way into the castle of 
 the Savelli in order to steal away Corradina, and at this opportunity 
 throttle Livio Savelli ? It is not credible ; one may say that would
 
 266 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 be an altogether impossible temerity! And yet the murder, the 
 flight of Corradina, the flight of the German, must have a con- 
 nection." 
 
 "You capture these people," said the Pope. "Have you not 
 bloodhounds enough ? Capture them, and you will ascertain the 
 connection. Bring, then, Livio Savelli a worthy death-offering. I 
 grant it to this poor Duke of Aricia. The man is to be pitied. His 
 Livio was a pliable fellow. But these men all go to the ground be- 
 cause they are not what they ought to be ; that is the part of the 
 affair which is not obscure ! These barons ! God has placed them 
 as watchmen and servants around this our Holy Chair, as he in 
 heaven has placed around his throne the archangels and legions. 
 They, however, have believed that, instead of its protectors, they 
 could make themselves its tyrants, and have beaten it in pieces in 
 order to take its fragments for their own ! God punishes them. He 
 has punished them through us, as we have broken their power, and 
 their children choke each other or suffocate together in the mire of 
 their sins. What more do you wish, Padre Geronimo ? Go and let 
 spies be sent after the fugitives ; since, as you say, this German 
 count is still weak and sick from his wound, before inflicted upon 
 him by Livio Savelli, he cannot have fled beyond the city." 
 
 " We have sent out detectives, Holy Father," answered Padre 
 Geronimo. " We have first sent to his lodgings ; the keepers of the 
 hotel and his servant appear not to have learned anything of him." 
 
 "And his friends? Watch them; keep their houses under 
 guard." 
 
 " Has he friends ? We know of none. The Duke of Aricia 
 mentions the procurator at the Rota, Signer Callisto Minucci, as his 
 friend. If he is his friend he will betray nothing ; and ought we to 
 seize upon and subject to the rack such a respectable and esteemed 
 person without any definite suspicions being advanced against 
 him ? " 
 
 " I might be able to mention to you a friend of the young German, 
 Padre Inquisitore," here put in Monsignore Inghirami, arising and 
 coming forward. 
 
 "See, see," the Pope turned to the latter in a jesting and banter- 
 ing tone. " Monsignore Phadra ! Why, Fra Geronimo, did you 
 not ask him sooner ? Such a learned man as he knows everything. 
 He knows from his books what is taking place on the moon and on 
 the earth."
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 267 
 
 "And Your Holiness knows what is taking place in heaven," 
 said Monsignore Phadra, smiling, " so the world has need to turn to 
 only us two. But this time you would do me too much honor if you 
 understand that I have obtained this out of the books intrusted to 
 my care. The best things we learn are not in the books of Your 
 Holiness." 
 
 "Do I so often express a desire for your books that you must 
 force this wisdom upon me ? Say what you know ! " 
 
 " I was with a young German monk of Padre Anselmo's order at 
 Master Raphael Santi's ; there the German monk received a message 
 from the escaped Count Egino, who ordered the monk to come to 
 himself on the Aventine. Also, this German monk is a friend, a 
 confidant, of the escaped German Count." 
 
 "In truth," remarked Padre Geronimo, "you remind me of it; 
 Livio Savelli also recently spoke of this German monk, saying the 
 escaped man wished to conduct him to the Countess Corradina. 
 And did the message of Count Egino fall upon him at the house of 
 Master Raphael Santi ? Did it reach him there ? " 
 
 " I myself showed him the way to the house of Santi, with whom 
 he had before become acquainted," responded Tommaso Inghirami. 
 "Why are you surprised at that ? " 
 
 "Strange," replied Padre Geronimo, "very strange; for at Master 
 Raphael Santi's bidding in the days just past, they have been working 
 in the rock-vaults under our cloister-buildings ; and only thus was it 
 made possible to escape from the dungeon-cells under our convent. 
 If there had not been an opening just the day before through the 
 excavations to pass through the old vaults and hitherto obstructed 
 passages into the open air " 
 
 "What would you say, Padre Geronimo?" cried the Pope, stand- 
 ing before him, and evidently likewise surprised. "Would you insin- 
 uate that my incomparable Master Santi is in a complot to release a 
 guilty person from the hands of Sant Uffizio, and to strangle Livio 
 Savelli ! Take care ! Do not touch the man ! " 
 
 The Pope had exclaimed this loudly and angrily. Turning from 
 the Inquisitor, he murmured to himself: 
 
 " Accursed monk ! Is he right ? Certainly ; it is so ! This auda- 
 cious man ! To steal .from the Dominicans their prisoner ! Acci- 
 dente ! " 
 
 Julius II. stepped meditatively to the mosaic table in the window- 
 niche, emptied the half-filled glass, and muttered further to himself :
 
 268 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " And a German monk should know about it ! They will seize 
 him, rack, and torment him, till he confesses everything. Poor 
 Master Santi ! We will protect you ! By Bacchus ! we will. They 
 shall not lay hold upon you ! 
 
 " Let the monk be brought to me. Procure for me the German 
 monk on the spot ; I wish to speak with him instantly ! " then sud- 
 denly exclaimed the Pope aloud, turning around. " You know of him, 
 Phadra ; give the order that some one fetch him ! "
 
 POPE JULIUS II. (RAPHAEL.)
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ALFONSO VON FERRARA. 
 
 1'ONSIGNORE went out in haste to have Brother Martin 
 produced. 
 
 When the Bishop of Ragusa came back, there stepped 
 near him through the lifted door-curtain at the same time 
 a servant, who said : 
 
 " Your Holiness has arranged for this hour the audience of the 
 Duke of Ferrara. His Excellency waits in the ante-chamber." 
 
 " Ferrara, Ferrara ! " murmured the Pope, and stroked himself 
 several times upon his beard, as if losing himself in thought. Then 
 throwing up his head, he nodded, and with the words, " Then lead 
 him in to us," he went to seat himself upon his chair, while those 
 present, who were sitting on the divan, arose to their feet. 
 
 The servant went back ; immediately thereupon the door-curtains 
 were pulled back by two guards. One saw beyond these, still in the 
 ante-chamber, a man richly clad in white-spotted gold brocade, hand- 
 ing over to the servant his dagger and his gloves ; a prelate, the 
 major-domo of the papal residence, then stepped forward and walked 
 in with the Duke of Ferrara. In the centre of the chamber, near 
 Padre Geronimo, the major-domo remained standing; the Duke 
 Alfonso von Este, a man of medium size, with a mobile, bright face, 
 dark-hued skin, and a sharp glance from the black eyes, stepped with 
 firm and measured tread to the front of the Pope's platform, let 
 himself down on both knees and kissed the foot, then the ring upon 
 the hand of the Holy Father. 
 
 "I bid you welcome, Duke," said the Pope, "since you humble 
 yourself before us, and come to sue for peace. To grant peace is 
 our office." 
 
 "I thank you, Holy Father," replied the duke, with a soft and 
 pleasing voice, "for these words, which it makes me happy to hear 
 from your lips. Your commander, Fabricio Colonna, who through 
 
 269
 
 270 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 his intercession won your pardon for me, has informed me how 
 graciously you require nothing of me except here in your court to ex- 
 press my penitence for having carried on war against you, against 
 you, the Holy Father of Christendom, and lord paramount of the 
 Dukedom of Ferrara, as which I am here now to acknowledge you, 
 loudly and openly acknowledge you. I repent not alone having 
 fought on the side of the King of France against you, but I also 
 recognize the ban of the church hanging over me, as I deserve from 
 my conduct, and beg you humbly that you now, moreover, remove 
 that from me." 
 
 "Arise, arise, my son ! " replied the Pope, taking the duke by the 
 shoulder to lift him up. 
 
 Duke Alfonso stood up, and the manner in which he threw back 
 his bearded head with the short, curling hair, showed that he, 
 perhaps the most powerful, and, at any rate, the best Italian prince 
 of his time, had lost nothing of his self-respect by an act of submis- 
 sion, which, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was considered as 
 little disgraceful as kneeling before an altar. Had not, before this, 
 Count Raimund von Toulouse allowed himself to be bloodily 
 scourged to become released from ban ? At a later time did not 
 Henry IV. of France make peace with the Pope under much more 
 ignominious conditions than those required of the duke ? Did not 
 the representatives of the king throw themselves down before the 
 throne of the Pope erected on the square in front of St. Peters ? and 
 were they not obliged to receive absolution with a stroke of the rod ? 
 
 Alfonso arose, and the Pope added : 
 
 "We shall, I hope, be good friends from now on, Duke Alfonso; 
 so good that I shall have the great pleasure of keeping you here in 
 this noble city of Rome, in which I have collected the greatest 
 masters in every art. For you will not dispute that my fine Raphael 
 Santi is the first of painters ; my rude Buonarroti the first of sculp- 
 tors ; and my ardent Bramante the first of architects. You, how- 
 ever, I am told, Duke, would be the first master who fell upon the 
 art of moulding artillery; and such a man this our Holy Chair may 
 well use in such wicked times, when it must defend with cannon its 
 own right and that of Italy." 
 
 " Holy Father, you have already, without my artillery, done such 
 brave wonders in this defense ; you have contested so victoriously 
 every foreign mastery of our beautiful peninsula, and founded for 
 yourself a kingdom so powerful "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 271 
 
 " For myself?" said the Pope, vehemently interrupting him. "Do 
 not say for myself ; do not say it, Duke ! My predecessors have 
 fought for themselves, that is, for their house, for their nephews. I 
 have no house, I have no nephews. My glory is that I have strug- 
 gled for the sake of the church. Let it be said to you that you may 
 thereby comprehend what you have done when you directed your 
 accursed artillery against my cities and rny people in arms ; they 
 were battering-rams brought out against the walls of the church, 
 against the house of Christ. And will you make it good by conse- 
 crating to the church your art ? You are so great a master in every 
 smith's-craft ; you understand how to harden steel, also to build 
 fortresses, and, besides, to arrange gay feasts of every kind, to erect 
 stages and theatres, the world tells of the wonders of Ferrara. 
 Would not Rome be a better place for such arts ? And then you 
 would bring to me, also, with your suite that merry knight, Messer 
 Ludovico Ariosto, and our court would possess in him, also, the man 
 whom they extol as the first of Italian poets." 
 
 While the Pope thus spoke, sharply bringing forward the words in 
 his way, the duke fixed upon him a questioning glance ; he evidently 
 perceived something in these words which caused him surprise. 
 Would Julius II. only provoke him ? Was it a merry jest, which, 
 from the severe countenance and the harsh tone of the Pope, only 
 sounded a little pungent ? Or had the latter the intention to indi- 
 cate that he, the duke, had been reduced to so dependent a vassalage 
 of the Holy Chair, that such proposals were allowed to be made to 
 him ? 
 
 However that was, Duke Alfonso had not come, had not been 
 ordered to the presence of, the Pope to contend with him over that 
 matter, and so he restricted himself to answering quietly : 
 
 " Holy Father, Messer Ludovico is, in truth, a faithful servant of 
 my house ; but to follow me to Rome, I would find it quite difficult to 
 induce him. Your Holiness remembers I at first sent just him to 
 effect for me a peace with you. Your Holiness, also, full of gracious- 
 ness, granted to him an audience, and, as was fit, he had himself con- 
 ducted to your palace and to your presence ; yet, scarcely had my 
 ambassador, Messer Ludovico, stepped over your apostolic threshold, 
 when Your Holiness wrathfully cried out to him that he should in- 
 stantly get out, if he did not wish to be thrown from the window. He 
 fell into a great fright over this ; he mounted his mule in hastening 
 flight, and rode without stopping till he felt himself safe in Ferrara.
 
 272 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Now he would not again trust himself in the neighborhood of your 
 power, even if you were to promise him to crown him upon the 
 Capitol as poet ! " 
 
 "These poets ! " laughed Julius II. "Since Horace left his shield 
 in the lurch, they have always remained the same hares ! " 
 
 The laughter of the Pope had about it something forced ; also an 
 expression came over his countenance which showed to the duke 
 that he, if he had intended to humble himself before the Pope, had, 
 indeed, drawn himself out of the affair. He had insinuated that the 
 power of the Pope did not extend over Ferrara, and at the same 
 time reminded the latter of an outburst of brutal temper, which 
 mention could not have been pleasant to him. 
 
 The countenance of the Holy Father had, indeed, darkened a 
 little, when he now continued : 
 
 "You see I have received you better! What concerns the con- 
 ditions of peace, we shall, no doubt, quickly and easily agree upon. 
 To establish these conditions with you, we have commissioned six of 
 our worthy brethren out of the number of cardinals. You may go, 
 now, Duke Alfonso ; settle with them. As a sign of reconciliation 
 and of your absolution, we will give you our apostolic blessing." 
 
 While Duke Alfonso threw himself down upon his knees, and 
 again kissed the ring upon the left hand of the Pope, the latter made 
 with the right hand a sign over his head. Then the duke arose, and, 
 with quick, firm step, inwardly rejoiced and relieved, at the side of 
 the major-domo he left the chamber. 
 
 Julius II. arose from his chair, stepped down from the platform, 
 and began again to walk up and down, as before. 
 
 "Padre Geronimo," he said, after a pause, "you are, in truth, a 
 saint, as we know ; but you are still, on that account, no statue of a 
 saint ! How can you stand so long ? Do as Phadra there, who is 
 no saint at all, and seat yourself. What do you say to this Duke of 
 Ferrara and his bearing ? A proud man that ! If I were a theo- 
 logian, as you are, I would quote against him a verse from the Old 
 Testament alas ! I no longer know how it sounds or where it is. 
 Monsignore Phadra, do you know it ? " 
 
 " Perhaps Your Holiness is thinking of the verse in the first book 
 of Kings : ' You are high in your defiance, but before the Lord will 
 his adversaries become frightened, and over them will he thunder in 
 heaven ! ' 
 
 "You see this Phadra knows everything. Perhaps you also know,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 273 
 
 Phadra, how long this monk whom we have ordered to us will still 
 let us wait." 
 
 " In any case longer, Holy Father, than is good for the poor monk, 
 if he should find you in other than a gracious temper. Think 
 graciously that he is one of those slow Germans, and that the road 
 to his cloister and back here is long ! " 
 
 The Pope turned back to his seat, and dropping down, he said : 
 
 " Pity he cannot make the distance with your tongue, Monsignore 
 <3i Ragusa, which is quicker ; in the meantime we will abbreviate 
 the moments by corroborating these briefs." 
 
 Julius II. took a great reed pen, and unrolled the first of the 
 parchments lying before him on the table. After reading it he 
 muttered some unintelligible words, and signed it deliberately with 
 great characters. Then he took a second ; in the midst of reading 
 it, he interrupted himself, and said, looking up : 
 
 "Monsignore Phadra, through whom do you have your bishopric 
 of Ragusa managed ? " 
 
 "Through a Franciscan, Holy Father." 
 
 "And you, there, Monsignore di Sienna," he turned to one of the 
 other gentlemen in the robes of a prelate, near whom Padre 
 Geronimo had now taken place, "who manages your church while 
 you draw up at the court these writs which you compel me to sign ?" 
 
 " Holy Father," anwered the Bishop of Sienna, " it is a brother of 
 the Holy Mount Carmel to whom I have intrusted it." 
 
 " And here," continued the Pope, signing the parchment, " I 
 assign now the power of managing the archbishopric of Sevilla to a 
 Capuchin. What true shepherds of your flocks you are ; every- 
 where you give them over to the mendicant monks ! Truly, they do 
 it for the lowest wages ; and they are better guards of the faith at 
 their posts than you would be, Phadra, for you are a pagan, 
 but they will yet become the whole church the whole church 
 a mendicant order ! "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
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 M. ANGELO to V. COLONNA. 
 
 |ULIUS II. was interrupted by the valet's entering. 
 
 "The Augustine brother after whom you asked, Holy 
 Father," he announced. 
 
 The Pope nodded his head ; the servant went back, and 
 immediately thereupon the door-curtain again arose to admit 
 Brother Martin. 
 
 Brother Martin's face bore all the marks of heat and of excite- 
 ment. He had been compelled to make the whole distance at a 
 headlong pace ; to mount thus the steep entrance to the Vatican, 
 the innumerable steps of the stair that even would have taken away 
 his breath if there had not been added to it the excitement of the 
 moment wherein he, the poor German monk, was led before the vice- 
 gerent of Christ upon the earth. He grew dizzy ; everything whirled 
 before his eyes, so that the objects around him were confused and 
 swimming. , The exalted, white-clad old man, who was throned upon 
 an elevation at the end of the great room, swayed before him almost 
 like a vision of dreams. If the usher had not, at the entrance, re- 
 peated to him that, so soon as he had crossed the threshold, he must 
 kneel down, he would have remained standing at the door like a pillar 
 of salt. 
 
 However, he humbly observed the custom. 
 
 Julius II. threw upon him a hasty glance; then he said to the 
 Bishop of Ragusa : 
 
 " You know him ; conduct him hither ! "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 275 
 
 Tommaso Inghirami approached Brother Martin, and touching 
 him on the shoulder, he said: 
 
 "Come; the Holy Father graciously grants to you that you may 
 kiss his foot." 
 
 Martin arose ; he went through the chamber at Inghirami's side ; 
 he knelt again on the platform to touch with his lips the gold-em- 
 broidered cross on the white shoe of the Pope ; and then he stepped 
 back, in order, breathing deeply several times and composing him- 
 self, to direct his glance freely upon the countenance of the Pope. 
 
 The Pope looked searchingly upon these features now directing 
 themselves so openly and freely toward him ; they appeared to strike 
 him. Passing the hand over the middle of his face, he said : 
 
 "To the mouth, you appear like a jolly brother and a clever 
 fellow ; and below that like an exorcist, before whom the devils 
 tremble. Have you ever cast them out ? " 
 
 The Pope had said this to him in the Italian speech. Brother 
 Martin had, by degrees, become so versed in it that he could answer 
 in the same tongue : 
 
 " No, Most Holy Father, at least not out of other men's souls ; 
 at the most, only out of myself ! " 
 
 " Out of yourself ? And what devils have hidden themselves in 
 you, that you must drive them out ? " asked the Pope, with a tone 
 of ridicule. 
 
 " The greatest one that has taken possession of me is the devil of 
 despondency, of hopelessness." 
 
 " How can one who has faith despair ? " 
 
 "The faith itself made me despair." 
 
 "The faith?" threw in the Pope, distractedly, and evidently 
 more occupied with the personality of the monk than with his 
 words. " That sounds strange. How did the faith make you 
 despair ? It must be, then, that you have despaired of the faith." 
 
 " And that is even so, most Holy Father ; and if you wish to hear 
 my confession of sins, I have fully despaired of the faith, and on 
 that account have suffered much pain ! How can I, I asked my- 
 self, do enough to deserve pardon and to be justified ? How can I, 
 weak one, find the strength to do the works which procure for me 
 salvation ? How can I save myself before the angry justice of God ? 
 And the anxiety of heart overpowered me ; the fear of God came over 
 me with a force which destroyed my consciousness and deprived me 
 of breath."
 
 276 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Pope Julius II. listened to him attentively ; what the German 
 there indicated to him in such few words, moved him, perhaps, as 
 something wonderful, strange. 
 
 "And this fear of God," he said, shaking his head, "was a devil 
 a devil which you had to drive out ? ' The fear of God is the begin- 
 ning of wisdom ;' now, shall the beginning of wisdom be the Devil ? " 
 
 " Why not, Holy Father ? The Devil can have the beginning of 
 wisdom, but not the middle and the end. The middle of wisdom is 
 love, and the end is peace." 
 
 Julius II. again shook his head. 
 
 " Fra Anselmo," he cried to his Father Confessor, " listen only 
 to your order-brother. Have you more of such metaphysicians 
 among you ? " 
 
 " Not so many, Most Holy Father," answered Fra Anselmo, 
 rising, " that it will not repay the trouble to listen to him." 
 
 The Pope nodded. 
 
 " He may speak further. He may tell wherewith he exorcised his 
 devil, and thereby succeeded in getting rid of the fear of God, like a 
 heretic." 
 
 " I have not rid myself of the fear of God," replied Brother 
 Martin, " but out of the fear of God the Devil twisted for me a rope 
 which he placed around my neck, so that I was even at the point of 
 death, and I have torn this Devil's halter away from me. Believe 
 me, Holy Father, it was a hard, hard struggle ! I had the book 
 of the Holy Scriptures in my cell, and out of it I drank full draughts 
 of the water of life and of eternal salvation. But immeasurable 
 anxiety and inexpressible pain of soul streamed in upon me with 
 this living water, as a flood in which I believed myself swallowed up. 
 For many weeks no sleep settled down upon my eyelids ; the 
 fever threw me upon a sick-bed ; the thought of my sinfulness 
 preyed upon my physical strength, the thought that, as I could 
 not fill the broad, boundless ocean, I, through my works, could 
 not win the boundless eternity of salvation nevermore; that I 
 could not turn upon me the favor of God, even though my weak 
 human strength should be increased a thousand-fold for doing what 
 the church prescribes for obtaining justification. Out of this 
 situation I have forced myself to a knowledge that all this doing is a 
 subordinate, an incidental thing ; that we have only to immerse 
 our whole soul into the faith, in order to feel streaming out of it into 
 us the blessed, peace-giving rest of the soul. For faith awakens
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 277 
 
 love ; and because our love sues for the love of God, we are 
 allowed to throw ourselves with a quiet spirit into the arms of God, 
 who will, no doubt, grant to us salvation. The heart filled with fear 
 and anxiety cannot love ; only the calm heart can do that. And 
 because I found this out, and thereby became of a joyous spirit, 
 I said, Most Holy Father, I have cast out the Devil from me." 
 
 Luther's eyes flashed while he spoke. His countenance was agi- 
 tated more like that of a man who declares his passion to a woman : 
 more like that of a child who pours out to his mother the out- 
 gushings of his enthusiastic heart. He was carried away with the 
 thought that he was speaking to God's deputy upon earth, to the 
 father of all the faithful ; he could not do otherwise before him than 
 to throw the door of his heart wide, wide open. While he was 
 speaking it came into his thoughts that now, directly from the lips of 
 this apostolic veteran, who was, indeed, a living bit of revelation, the 
 Holy Spirit must breathe upon him and pour itself into his open 
 heart ; for, in spite of all the sores and wounds of the church, there 
 was, for him and for millions of others, the Head of the Church, 
 standing high above its degeneracy, still the true and infallible 
 expression of its original principle ; it had remained so, in spite of 
 all that happened. 
 
 Pope Julius II., however, shook his head, murmuring some unin- 
 telligible words. 
 
 In fact, he would have answered, had not Padre Geronimo, An- 
 selmo, Phadra, and the others been present ; they were such sharp 
 theologians ! Julius II. feared theologians, because he felt himself 
 weak in their science ; and he preferred, in their presence, not to 
 venture upon the smooth ice, to express no further opinion than 
 to throw in, dryly, the questions : 
 
 " And how have you arrived at this beautiful knowledge that 
 works are of no use, whereby you should hang your gown upon a 
 nail ? whereby the sacraments would cease to be sacraments with 
 fasts and castigations ? whereby you should throw into the fire your 
 pilgrim-staff, by which you made your pilgrimage to this holy city, 
 Rome ? and whereby, in the end, you can become a heathen, for 
 even the heathen can believe in their gods and love them ? " 
 
 Over Brother Martin's features glided an expression as of severe 
 disappointment. 
 
 With surprise, and a little less loudly, he answered : 
 
 " Holy Father, become a heathen ? I have, indeed, spoken of the
 
 278 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Christian faith, because I recognize how gloriously Christianity out- 
 shines all other religions. With faith and love, the man baptized into 
 Christ finds the only mediator ; for, of all religions, Christianity 
 alone has a mediator. In all of them there is no one who lifts up 
 man again when he is fallen ; to whose breast, to whose love, the 
 sinner can flee when he will atone for an offense ; at whose feet he 
 can lay down all his human misery. For the Mediator was a man, 
 as we are ; he knows human nature in all its depths, also the im- 
 pulse of the polluted soul to the new birth. How could a man 
 thirsting for religion, be untrue to the faith which satisfies the heart 
 and the thoughts before all others, to become a heathen ? " 
 
 " It may be, may be," interjected the Pope, impatiently ; " still, you 
 are a fanatic. You think too much, you Germans ! What need has 
 a mendicant monk of thinking ? Read your masses, sing your Psalter 
 off, and then lay yourselves upon the ear on your straw sacks. 
 Through your thinking you come to heresy. Isn't that true, Padre 
 Geronimo ? Let the church think for you, as the church lets us, her 
 only Supreme Head, think for her. And even we do not think ; for 
 if we were to rack our brains with thinking, we would at last know 
 no more whether what we have thought out is our finite wisdom, or 
 the infallible suggestion of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 "But the brain of man cannot stand still, Holy Father." 
 
 " Why not ? Is not the Holy Spirit brains enough for mankind ? 
 Do your hard German noddles need more ? Will you speak against 
 it ? Will you raise yourselves against the works laid upon you by 
 the church ? Only look at this brother ! Throw the stupid monk 
 out for me, Phadra ! " 
 
 Pope Julius II. began to speak in anger, which was so easily 
 enkindled in him. Fortunately he was appeased by Phadra's re- 
 marking : 
 
 "Your Holiness wished to examine him on account of his con- 
 nection with the German Count " 
 
 "Did I? Well, he will not know much about it. Had the Ger- 
 man had need of a monk for his flight and for the abduction of Luca 
 Savelli's widow, he would not have taken this simple fanatic. You 
 question him, Padre Geronimo." 
 
 Padre Geronimo turned to Brother Martin, and said : 
 
 " You know the Count Egino von Ortenburg ?" 
 
 " Yes," replied Brother Martin, looking absent-mindedly at the
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 279 
 
 Dominican, and wiping away the cold perspiration which his inner 
 excitement now drove out upon his brow. 
 
 " He wrote to you that you should come to him in our cloister at 
 Santa Sabina. What for ? " 
 
 " Because he had become acquainted with a noble lady, to whom he 
 would lead me." 
 
 " For what purpose ? " 
 
 "I know not." 
 
 " Do you know that he has fled, after having killed Count Livio 
 Savelli ? " 
 
 "I heard that Count Livio Savelli had been killed. I do not 
 believe that Count Egino has killed him, unless it has been in 
 righteous self-defense, and from compulsion. If he has escaped I 
 wish him good luck in it ; for I wish to him, as an honorable young 
 German prince, every good." 
 
 " How did you become acquainted with Raphael Santi ? " 
 
 " The Bishop of Ragusa, there, had the good will to me to take me 
 to the celebrated master." 
 
 " Have you seen him since then ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Whither do you suppose Count Egino has fled ? " 
 
 " I do not know, and suppose nothing about it." 
 
 " You stand in the presence of our Most Holy Father ; in his 
 name I require of you to speak the truth ; I require it of you by 
 your vow and your obedience to the church. What do you know of 
 the occurrences of the past night in the Savelli Castle?" 
 
 "Nothing," replied Brother Martin, calmly. 
 
 " Do you believe that Master Raphael Santi knows of them ? " 
 
 " / cannot believe without grounds of belief. The foundation of 
 faith is testimony, unassailable testimony, which, subjected to investiga- 
 tion by my reason 
 
 " Isn't this monk beginning his homily again ? " here angrily put 
 in Pope Julius II. "Throw him out, I tell you ; he is a blockhead, 
 you see, and knows nothing. Let him run, Padre Geronimo ; let him 
 run. I will that they let him run, and that they no more mention 
 Raphael Santi in this affair, nor disturb him ; do you hear ? I will 
 it!" 
 
 Brother Martin, who was gazing upon the reddening countenance 
 of the Pope, felt himself seized by the shoulder. It was Monsignore 
 Phadra and Padre Anselmo, who had hastened forward to take him
 
 286 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 away, as they knew how dangerous it was if such an order of the 
 Holy Father did not receive immediate execution. 
 
 And so, before he was aware, before he had come to his senses, 
 he stood outside in the great ante-chamber. He walked slowly, 
 seeking his way alone through the valets, and porters, and Swiss 
 guards ; through great rooms ; down many, many steps ; over St. 
 Peter's Square, with its chaos of building materials ; through the 
 Borgo ; finally homeward, to his cloister. 
 
 How much poorer a man he was than when he had come this way 
 in such haste, with heart beating so high ! 
 
 He was affected as is a child that sees his highest upon earth, 
 his father and mother, committing a sin, for whom, then, the illum- 
 inating star of his trust sinks into the dirt. 
 
 He had in Italy and Rome seen the church in its most unrestrained 
 worldliness. He had been stirred up by the moral degeneracy of 
 those who called themselves priests, by the entire shipwreck of re- 
 ligious feeling in most of them, by their blasphemies and their vice. 
 But as the poor wanderer who has fallen into cold and night, doubts 
 not in his heart of the existence of the sun, so the poor German 
 cloister-brother entertained in his deepest heart his trust in the in- 
 destructible power of the principle ; and in the sunlit splendor of 
 this principle, the Head of the Church, although imprisoned in bonds 
 of mortality, had yet always stood for him as the highest guardian of 
 the truth, as the last sustainer of his silent hopes. 
 
 And now these hopes had taken their flight. 
 
 This Pope was a phenomenon as worldly, as earthly, as without 
 love, as unconcerned about the truth, as the hundreds of others that 
 he saw. 
 
 To this man, who must be the gentle shepherd of his flock, the 
 father of the faithful, also his own father, Brother Martin, in the full, 
 warm impulse of his heart, had at once, unreservedly as a child, 
 spoken out, as well as possible in the few words granted to him, that 
 which filled his innermost soul. 
 
 What had moved, and tormented, and agitated him in many sad 
 hours for months and years ; what had been the object there at 
 home of so many profound discussions with pious and learned 
 friends, with his noble and mildly paternal Johann von Stanpitz ; 
 the whole inner life of his mind, the sickening of his spirit and its 
 recovery; the darkness of his soul and the light ; and the thought 
 out of which, as from the moving star of the Wise Men, this light
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 281 
 
 had fallen upon him, all this he had told in quickly winged words 
 to his spiritual father. 
 
 The Pope had not understood him. The spiritual father had had 
 no ear for the speech of his child. 
 
 And, still, he had understood him. The Pope was, like all the 
 rest a shrewd man. 
 
 He had perceived on the spot that Luther's thought, like an atlas, 
 took upon itself the centre of gravity of Christianity, removed it 
 from the place assigned it by the church, and cast it into a region 
 whither only German minds could follow it into the region of 
 the inner being ; into a region where good works could no more be 
 offered for gold, as if they were wares representing economic 
 values ! 
 
 Brother Martin slowly wended his way home. He was not shaken 
 in his conviction, but he was sad, just as he had been there at home 
 in the quiet cloister-cell in Wittenberg. Never did he feel more 
 deeply the sentence he has uttered, "The human heart is a defiant 
 and despairing thing." His heart was so dauntless for the truth it 
 had found, clinging to it so inflexibly, yet so despondent in the feel- 
 ing of his weakness in presence of the world which will not have the 
 truth ! 
 
 The consciousness of having a truth which the world has not and 
 will not have, is for noble minds a greater martyrdom than is conse- 
 quent upon struggling for truth. 
 
 That saying of Hamlet, 
 
 " A rent goes through the time ; accursed the hour 
 Which gave me birth to heal its wounds," 
 
 contains for deeply feeling natures, fanatically ardent for their truth, 
 like Hamlet, the outcry of a fearful anguish of spirit. 
 
 Each one is conscious of his mission, but the still dumb prophet 
 feels that the great word which he bears in him yet unspoken, more 
 mighty than himself, will force its way over his lips to make of him 
 a Laocoon ; that, so soon as the word is spoken, the great, deep, and 
 filthy pool called life will spew out against him its serpents to en- 
 circle and suffocate him. Luther felt, with shuddering and stagna- 
 ting heart, the soft creeping of these serpents. 
 
 When he should succeed in finding the world-moving Word, which 
 should wake again for humanity the lost and dead Christ, and which 
 should overthrow the idols that had usurped his place, then there was.
 
 282 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 no power upon earth to protect him in the conflict which must rage 
 against him. This hour had taught him that the infallible, supreme 
 head of Christendom was his enemy, as all others. He who would 
 be victor there must be stronger than Laocoon.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF GIULIETTA. 
 
 MARTIN, lost in thought, moved slowly 
 through the streets of Rome. 
 
 What he had learned up there in the chamber of the 
 Pope, caused him now to take a different road from that 
 he had intended before the courier from the Vatican had ordered 
 him to the Holy Father. He did not go to the house of Callisto, 
 but turned himself toward the height of the Quirinal, in order to 
 talk with Irmgard. 
 
 He would bring to her at once the information which he had 
 obtained of Egino's flight. He knew what a message of joy it would 
 be for the young maiden, and he felt that for himself, in his deep 
 despondency, the only comfort, the only balsam for his wounded 
 spirit would be found in pouring balm into another bruised human 
 heart. His unselfish disposition changed the sentence, " I suffer 
 so others may suffer also," into, " I will bear my sorrow if I can 
 only remove that of others." 
 
 As he was passing the entrance to the Colonna Palace, at the foot 
 of the hill, he saw a crowd of people just dispersing. Some gentle- 
 men in rich clothing stood before the door ; horses iri gay trappings 
 were being led up and down in the court : it was still a part of the 
 retinue with which the Duke of Ferrara had ridden to the audience 
 with Julius II. , and they had just now reached home. Inside, in the 
 Colonna Gardens, Brother Martin perceived this when he was 
 mounting by the side of the lofty wall surrounding these gardens 
 along the Quirinal, the duke must already be celebrating with his 
 friends and entertainers the good result of the audience, for they were 
 talking very loudly and joyously over there on the other side of the 
 wall. 
 
 As he was passing by a great iron door in the wall leading out 
 of doors, he also, with a cursory glance, saw the company. Just then
 
 284 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 they were tipping their glasses and drinking the health of the Pope 
 and the Duke. 
 
 Martin walked on ; he reached the widow's house. There, where 
 the hedge left open the entrance to the garden, stood a man clad in 
 black, talking briskly with Beppo ; Beppo appeared extraordinarily 
 surprised, and very pale. As Martin walked past him in the garden 
 he was just uttering some exclamations: "Eh!" and "Oh!" and 
 " Accidcntc ! " and Brother Martin then heard him cry out : 
 
 " Sor Antonio, you can rely upon me as if I were a client of the 
 noble house of Savelli, and as if my father and all my ancestors since 
 the days of Romulus had been. You may rely upon me ! " 
 
 " I rely upon you ; and since my poor murdered Lord Livio's wife, 
 his poor widow now, is a Colonna, the clients of the Colonna must, 
 of course, stand by us." 
 
 "Certainly, certainly they must ; but let me see now whither this 
 brother will go." 
 
 "See to it, Beppo, and do not forget what I said to you." 
 
 "No, Sor Antonio; and I will bring you news so soon as any- 
 thing the least suspicious occurs." 
 
 Beppo had a peculiarly quick and excitable nature, and on that ac- 
 count he left Sor Antonio standing and ran after Brother Martin. 
 
 " Whither will you go ? " he said, when he overtook the latter at 
 the house-door, which was locked to-day, and laid his hand upon his 
 sleeve. 
 
 "To the Germans who dwell with you." 
 
 "For God's sake," whispered Beppo, anxiously, "speak low! To 
 the Germans ? What Germans ? Do you know them ? You your- 
 self must be, according to your speech, a " 
 
 " I am a German, and a friend of your tenants." 
 
 "Well, well, I will believe it of you." 
 
 Beppo knocked at the door. 
 
 " I will lead you to them," he said, while knocking. " But if you 
 are their friend, good Brother, do not speak to any human soul " 
 
 Beppo was interrupted, for the door opened, and Frau Giulietta 
 stuck her head through. 
 
 " He is a friend, a German, mother," whispered Beppo to her. 
 
 Frau Giulietta opened the door entirely, and admitted Brother 
 Martin, whom she recognized. 
 
 Beppo remained outside. 
 
 The widow led Brother Martin through her sitting-room, which
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 285 
 
 the hearth pointed out as, at the same time, the kitchen, past an 
 open door, through which one could look into a room full of tools, 
 implements of Beppo's craft, and opened the door to the part occu- 
 pied by their tenants. Stepping into the room, Brother Martin was 
 startled when his first glance fell upon an old canopied bed in the 
 background, and saw that Irmgard rested upon it, and with a motion 
 indicating the utmost feebleness turned her head to him. 
 
 "Irmgard," he exclaimed, "what has happened to you? Are you 
 sick ? " 
 
 Uncle Kraps, who, like a picture of grief, sunken into himself, was 
 seated at the foot of the bed, had moved away at the entrance of the 
 monk. When he heard the German words, a wonderful distortion 
 convulsed his face. He stammered out sobbingly : 
 
 " Some one has stabbed her ; some one has stabbed her to death, 
 and I have made him cold ! He has not moved a limb any more ; but 
 now I have the sin upon me, the mortal sin upon me, the mortal sin ! " 
 
 Brother Martin fixed, with astonishment, his glance upon the re- 
 markable form talking as if in ravings ; then he turned to Irmgard, 
 and repeated : 
 
 " What has happened ? Speak, poor child ! " 
 
 " I have been wounded last night," said Irmgard, with a weak voice. 
 
 " Wounded badly wounded ? " 
 
 " The physician says so, and I feel that it is really severe ! " 
 
 " Just God ! you poor, poor girl ! You have also a physician ? '^ 
 
 " He has been here twice, already ; the son of our landlady has 
 brought him. He bound up my wounds this morning." 
 
 " But tell me how it has occurred." 
 
 " We had found an entrance into the cloister into the dungeons. 
 At the same time the Countess Corradina with Lord Livio Savelli, 
 had come into the same rooms to get Egino out. We met, and 
 speaking is difficult for me ; I have lost too much blood before I 
 was bandaged, the doctor says ; let my uncle tell you. My uncle 
 has killed Livio Savelli. Now, the murder lies heavy upon his soul, 
 and he is grieving for some one to whom he can confess it. Let 
 him confess it to you ! " 
 
 " Yes ; I have no rest, no rest more, till I can confess it. Let me 
 confess it to you, Brother ! " sobbed Uncle Kraps. 
 
 "Well, well, that he may," assented Brother Martin. "But first 
 tell me, where are they where are Egino and this Corradina?"
 
 286 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 "Both in the house of Signer Callisto," answered Irmgard, 
 uttering the words with difficulty. 
 
 Brother Martin looked around in the spacious chamber. His glance 
 flew over the few pieces of old furniture ; over the picture of Christ 
 that hung in a dust-blackened frame on the wall ; over a great white 
 marble bust, the image of a beautiful, but severe-looking, heathen 
 goddess, which stood by the wall opposite Irmgard's bed. He took 
 a chair and placed it in the most remote corner ; Uncle Kraps fol- 
 lowed him, and knelt down before him and wept and whispered his 
 confession. Brother Martin questioned him now and then, and thus 
 he obtained information of the events of the past night so far as 
 Uncle Kraps could give it. When he had communicated the abso- 
 lution, he arose and took the place left by Uncle Kraps at Irmgard's 
 feet. His eyes rested a long time with a moist glance upon the poor 
 young girl. 
 
 -" Irmgard," he said then, softly, and with a voice through which 
 emotion trembled, while he seized the hand resting upon the cover- 
 let, "you have also endangered your life for the sake of this young 
 man, who yet loves another." 
 
 "If he loved me," she replied, with a feeble smile, "it would be 
 no, great service. Then my death would be his misfortune. Now, I 
 die for his happiness. Is it not better so, Brother Martin? " 
 
 " You are an angel in spirit ! " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "An angel? I repent only one sin. It was all, indeed, only the 
 consequence of my unfortunate advice ! " 
 
 "Such consequences you could not foresee." 
 
 " Yes ; but the impulse to help him made me so sinfully inconsid- 
 erate, that I gave him such an advice. And, perhaps," she added, 
 sighing, "perhaps there was still another sin besides." 
 
 "And what, Irmgard?" 
 
 " Can I tell it to you ? When I advised him to go into the clois- 
 ter, in order thus to come into the vicinity of the Countess Corradina, 
 there I fought against my own heart. I chided my heart for what 
 existed in it, sinful, sinful jealousy! Perhaps that was wrong, 
 that I exercised violence against my own heart." 
 
 "That was not a wrong," put in Brother Martin. 
 
 "Do you know that so positively ? Is one a'lowed thus to repress 
 her heart and her whole soul ? Is one allowed to act thus against 
 her strongest, best emotions ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 287 
 
 Brother Martin did not answer. He only looked at her question- 
 ingly and in surprise. 
 
 " You do not need to quiet me over this consciousness of sin," she 
 continued, smiling. " I have meant it for good. I have yet also 
 done the most if he is saved, and now becomes happy. CorraSina 
 said when we were in the flight she said it that on the way in 
 which she would have led him into liberty, through the Castle of the 
 Savelli, there certainly would snares, or murder, even, have been 
 lying in wait! Now he is free by me ! I am not sorry that I 
 have death from it. I do not cling to life. If only some friend 
 would care for Uncle Kraps ! I wish that it should go so well with 
 him. He can become so wild, as wild as a beast. But still he is 
 good. Even when he grieves that he has committed a murder, I 
 still love him. He would only defend himself ; and, besides, his wild- 
 ness came upon him. I still love him, but love life no more. See, 
 there, I will gladly go to Him with the bleeding crown ; he is my 
 brother ; I will go to him. Is it not true that he is my brother in 
 pain and good will ? " 
 
 Martin followed the direction of her eyes, which lay upon the head 
 of Christ on the wall. 
 
 " So He is," he said, also casting his eyes, large arid luminous, 
 upon the picture. " He is your brother, and is near you. For you 
 they have not been able to slay him ; your spirit keeps him alive for 
 you. And even without the pain he would be your brother, as he is 
 that of every human soul that seeks and loves him ! "
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PICTURE OF CHRIST AND THE HEAD OF THE GODDESS. 
 
 FTER Frau Giulietta had conducted Brother Martin to 
 the room of the sick, she had gone back, back to Beppo. 
 She found him standing in the middle of the garden path. 
 He had torn off a leaf of a bush and was chewing it, and 
 looking at the ground, lost in thought. When his mother laid her 
 hand on his shoulder, he started violently. 
 
 " O mother! " he exclaimed, taking a deep breath. 
 
 "Will you now tell me what all this means ? " said Frau Giulietta, 
 in great warmth, and still with a subdued voice. " May I now learn 
 how it comes to pass that you bring that poor girl to the house, 
 wounded to death, in the middle of the night ? And why does this 
 Pasquino, this wine-bibber of a dwarf, mutter to himself as if he had 
 become deranged ? And why did that great, black-clad man come to 
 you, who just now left ? And why should I keep the house so care- 
 fully locked ? And why do you put off my questions about this with 
 nothing but evasions and confused exclamations, as if I were a child, 
 and without right to know ? " 
 
 " My dear mother," exclaimed Beppo, laying his clasped hands 
 upon her shoulder, and looking upon her with tears in his eyes, " I 
 will confess everything to you, everything, everything what a block- 
 head, what a dunce, what a brainless fool I was ! Oh my God ! if 
 now, now, where this Sor Antonio was and chased a mortal fright 
 over my members, I did not have you, in order to acknowledge and 
 confess it to you, it would break my heart." 
 
 "So, now, speak, speak what has happened! Tell where you 
 were with these foreigners last night." 
 
 "Where we were, mother? You have heard that Livio Savelli 
 was killed last night, and that his sister-in-law, Countess Corradina, 
 has eloped." 
 
 2SS
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 289 
 
 " Holy body ! You surely would not have killed him ? " 
 
 "Who knows, mother, who knows? By Heaven! it is not im- 
 possible ! " 
 
 "Not impossible that you, that you " cried Fran Giulietta, in 
 horror, and seizing with trembling hand the arm of her son, as if to 
 hold herself upright in her fright. 
 
 Beppo led her to the seat under the plane tree and the mulberry 
 tree. There he dropped down near her, and laying his hand upon 
 her shoulder, and staring upon the ground as if annihilated, he 
 whispered : 
 
 " See, this is all that I can tell you. The young girl heard from 
 me that we had made excavations, and had found an entrance to the 
 subterranean rooms under the cloister of Santa Sabina, where they, 
 the Dominican monks, as they say, have their cloisters, and where 
 the immured languish. Now, she wished to go in there." 
 
 "In there!" cried Giulietta, in the utmost astonishment. "Im- 
 possible ! " 
 
 "It is so, mother. She wished to go in there." 
 
 "But, Holy Mother ! why for what purpose ? " 
 
 "She wished to see the ones immured there." 
 
 "To see the immured she, the German girl ? " 
 
 "She wished it she wished it, at all events." 
 
 "See the immured of Sant Uffizio ! " repeated Frau Giulietta, 
 unable to recover from her astonishment. 
 
 "She had set her head upon it." 
 
 "But didn't you say to her that the Sant Uffizio is a sacred thing ; 
 that " 
 
 "I told her everything; but she begged and begged, and I, I 
 was such a fool, such a wretched fool, that I promised to show her 
 the way." 
 
 "And you did that, really did that ? " 
 
 " I did it. I procured one of the great lanterns which we use in 
 the excavations. At the third hour after Ave Maria we went, an 
 hour before midnight. You were fast asleep, and did not notice 
 how we stole away." 
 
 Frau Giulietta struck her hands together with an "O God !" 
 
 " We went to the Aventine ; there, where, left of the Marmorata, 
 lies the debris at the foot of the rocks, you know, there is an old, 
 now unused wine-cellar ; through this one succeeds to the vaults 
 .under the cloister. A passage, which had been obstructed, leads
 
 290 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 upward, and this passage we had opened the day before ; Master 
 Raphael Santi had ordered it. Through this passage I led her, and 
 then through an opening in a vault up into a great room, great, 
 desolate, and dark. At the end of this room, in one corner, is an old, 
 iron-grated door, through which one comes farther, and perhaps into 
 the dungeons, perhaps into the cloister itself. There I remained be- 
 hind, mother believe me, I remained behind, I had such dread of 
 sacrilege " . 
 
 " Go on ! Tell me further! " interjected Giulietta. 
 
 " I saw how the German dwarf shook at the iron door ; how he 
 drew out a piece of iron, and broke from the old wall-work the slot 
 in which the bolt stuck. I believe he could have done it with his 
 mere fingers, for this hunchbacked, wrinkled man has the strength 
 of an ox. I believe he could take a buffalo on his crooked back. 
 He broke the slot out as if it had been set in rotten wood, and then 
 they both went, he and the young girl, through the door, and took 
 the lantern with them, leaving me behind them in the dark. I saw 
 how they stole along the passage farther and farther. Like dark 
 shadows they glided on ; the light of the lantern traveled over the 
 dark passage-walls near them, growing ever smaller and weaker. 
 Finally it disappeared altogether. Everything was now still, was 
 night around me. I heard my heart beat ; I heard the dust gently 
 falling down; I heard my anxious breathing that was all. And 
 then suddenly voices, voices, but quite from a distance. I was dread- 
 fully frightened, you may yourself think ; I wished to follow them, 
 but groping forward, I struck my forehead against the iron door 
 standing open in the room in which I was waiting. That made me 
 more considerate. I also soon saw the light of the lantern again 
 shimmering, and then a bright light as of a torch glowing. It came 
 nearer and nearer ; the shadows were there again, two, three, 
 shadows ; one shadow so broad and large, what could it be ? They 
 hastened and came quickly to me. God, mother! how I was fright- 
 ened when I saw that the great shadow was nothing but the crooked 
 dwarf, who was carrying the young maiden in his arms ; and as if 
 dead, as if dead forever she was, her head falling back like that of a 
 corpse ! " 
 
 " Most Holy Virgin ! " exclaimed Frau Giulietta. "And the other 
 shadows ? " 
 
 " Did I know them ? " said Beppo. " A tall, beautiful, proud lady, 
 and a handsome, but pale, young man, who came weak and tottering,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 291 
 
 and whom the lady led, who supported himself upon her so." 
 
 Beppo laid his left arm around the neck and upon the left shoulder 
 of his mother. 
 
 " So they walked, and when they saw me they beckoned with the 
 hand, and murmured, 'Away, away, Beppo.' The dwarf said that, 
 and held the lantern to me, that I should carry it ; but the lady gave 
 me also the torch, and so I took both ; and so we hastened farther, 
 springing through the opening in the floor down upon the heap of 
 rubbish lying under it, and through the passage, and, finally, into the 
 open air. Out in the fresh night-air the German girl recovered from 
 her unconsciousness, and whispered with the others, and wished to 
 go upon her own feet ; but the dwarf would not permit it, but held 
 her in his arms. They talked together in their German speech, and 
 then the dwarf walked forward with his burden, and carried her here. 
 I walked in advance, showing the way. I had then only the lantern ; 
 the torch I had hurled away into the Tiber ; and so we came back, 
 the dwarf carrying the girl, and I breathlessly hastening on in 
 advance." 
 
 " And the gentleman and the lady ? " 
 
 "They had disappeared as we came on, vanished into the night. 
 The gentleman and the lady must have fallen upon another way, on a 
 spot where they could remain behind without my perceiving them. 
 They had already disappeared when we were passing over the Campo 
 Vaccino ; there I looked around after them, and saw them no more." 
 
 " And who, I pray you, were they ? Whither did they come ? Who 
 has thus mortally wounded the young girl ? and what has Livio 
 Savelli to do with it? and who has murdered him ? and " 
 
 " Mother, I have told you all, all that I know ; but the man who 
 just went away from me said " 
 
 " Who was he ? " 
 
 " His name is Antonio, the body-servant of the murdered Livio 
 Savelli. He said the sister-in-law of his master has fled, and at the 
 same time a German count, Countess Corradina's lover, out of the 
 Dominican cloister ; and they must be the murderers, and all that 
 belong to the house of Savelli search and spy after them, and guard 
 every road and bridge ; and we, we who are clients of the house of 
 Colonna, must assist them. Sor Marcello, the master of affairs over 
 in the Colonna Palace, had told him he should, in passing by, let me 
 know, and commission me, in Marcello's name, to help discover the 
 fugitives. How that man has perplexed me, I cannot at all tell you ! "
 
 292 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Oh ! we poor, poor creatures ! " exclaimed Frau Giulietta ; " into- 
 what misfortune we have fallen through these Germans and through 
 your folly, Beppo ! " 
 
 "Yes, through my folly! " said Beppo, the tears coming into his 
 eyes. 
 
 " Will they not track up, investigate, search, till everything in this 
 dreadful, dark story lies as clear before the eyes as daylight ; till they 
 know that you were the guide of these people ; till they seize upon 
 you, and O, my God, my God ! " groaned Frau Giulietta, who from 
 dread and horror could speak no further, but broke out in a flood of 
 tears. 
 
 Beppo folded his hands, held them between his knees, and staring 
 upon the ground, he said : 
 
 " All that I say to myself, mother. Oh ! if I could only do some- 
 thing to make it good again ; only something with which to punish 
 myself right severely for my brainless stupidity^*" 
 
 "Think of nothing further than saving yourself," sobbed Frau 
 Giulietta. "You must flee, Beppo, you must flee instantly. You 
 must be far, far from here when they find out the connection of this 
 affair, and then the bailiffs and their chief come to take you 
 prisoner ! " 
 
 "And if they then take you, if they drag you before the court, as 
 sharing the knowledge of the affair, as an accomplice ? No, mother, 
 I will not flee ; I will leave you in no case, mother." 
 
 " You must, Beppo " 
 
 " Say nothing more about it. I can do only one thing to atone for 
 my follies only one ; to stay with you, in spite of my anxiety ; to 
 remain to protect you ; to be able to say that I will make known all 
 that I know, but leave my mother untouched, for she, she knows 
 nothing about it. I will take upon myself the anxiety for your sake, 
 mother. It is the only thing I can do to atone for my sin, the only 
 thing ! Say nothing further about it ; I remain with you, mother." 
 
 Frau Giulietta found Beppo immovable in this ; also when she 
 pleaded with him, if he would not leave Rome, to stay, but to flee 
 into one of the numerous asylums to which transgressors took their 
 flight, into a church or a cloister, or into the court of a cardinal. 
 
 " That would be foolish," he said ; " for thereby I would betray my- 
 self even before they have a suspicion against me, and betray with 
 myself that poor German girl." 
 
 " The poor German girl ! Do you speak thus of these abominable
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 293 
 
 Germans who have led you astray, and think more of them than of 
 your mother's anxiety of soul?" sobbed Frau Giulietta. 
 
 Loud talking and gay laughter at this moment penetrated from 
 without, into the quiet corner of the garden in which Frau Giulietta 
 and her son sat in such deep trouble. Beppo sprang up and stepped 
 out of the thicket to the lower hedge, to see who was coming : he 
 espied a whole crowd of young people, about twenty, who were pass- 
 ing by. In advance went a handsome and finely built young man 
 with a long neck, a little bowed forward, and pale, evenly olive-tinted 
 skin. He was clad in black velvet, with a dark-green over-garment, 
 over which a golden chain adorned the breast, while from his black 
 cap fluttered back a long, white plume. Another young man simi- 
 larly clothed, only without the chain, bore in his hand after him the 
 sword of the first, fastened to him by a fine golden pendant. 
 
 Beppo made a profound bow when the crowd, which appeared as 
 if some prince had come hither with his suite, was opposite to him. 
 The young man at the head saw him, and recognizing him, turned 
 and stepped to the hedge behind which Beppo stood, while the new- 
 comer gayly cried out : 
 
 " Ay, isn't that Beppo, my industrious workman ? Do you live 
 here, Beppo ? " 
 
 Beppo bowed again, slightly reddening, and answered : 
 
 " Just so, Master Raphael Santi." 
 
 " And this is your little house, and your garden ? Look, look, how 
 cleverly this Beppo has housed himself ! Can there be fresher air 
 and a finer prospect in all Rome ? Let me into your garden ; and I 
 wish to see your house, too, Beppo. Come here, you Giovanni ; we 
 will make our call upon Beppo instead of upon the great Alfonso von 
 Ferrara and the mighty Fabricio Colonna, over there. They can fore- 
 go our company, the proud lords ; but Beppo is a brave youth, and 
 will rejoice if we visit him. Will you not, Beppo ? " 
 
 " Ay, long live Beppo and his little house ! " exclaimed the others, 
 the pupils and art comrades, in overflowing humor, and always ready 
 to act upon the suggestions of their young master. 
 
 " Long live the fresh air in Beppo's garden ! " was further cried 
 out, in good-natured sport. 
 
 Raphael had stepped into the garden, to whose entrance, on the 
 inside of the hedge, Beppo had approached, with his cap torn off. 
 Now, for the first time, Raphael perceived the poor fellow's deeply 
 downcast mien.
 
 294 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " Eh, brave Beppo, what is the matter with you ? Have we so 
 frightened you with our noisy breaking in ? Do you fear that we will 
 voluntarily tread down your cabbages and your artichokes here ? " 
 
 "It is not that, noble master," stammered Beppo, "only that I 
 cannot at this hour lead you into my house, because, because " 
 
 " Has he just hidden his sweetheart in there, whom he will not let 
 us see, this rascal of a Beppo ? " exclaimed laughingly the one with 
 the sword. 
 
 " Because a sick girl is in the house," exclaimed Beppo, with a 
 suppressed tone, whispering. 
 
 "That is something different," said Raphael; and showing the 
 pupils back, he added : 
 
 " Who is she ? A sister ? your mother ? poor Beppo ! " 
 
 " It is not one belonging to us ; it is a foreigner, who lives with 
 us for rent." 
 
 " A foreigner ? And still you seem so troubled and pained ? Is 
 she so dear to you ? or is her condition so bad ? Or is it want and 
 need ? Can I do something, Beppo ? Is any assistance needed ? 
 You can speak openly to me, you know ; I gladly help " 
 
 Beppo looked with emotion into the features of the master, who, 
 with such a noble expression, gave utterance to so warm a desire to 
 help. He was tempted to trust to him at once his whole grief, when 
 the house-door was opened, and Brother Martin, coming out, stepped 
 upon the threshold. 
 
 " Ah ! is it so bad you have already sent for a priest ? " said 
 Raphael, with a glance at him ; and then recognizing Brother Martin, 
 he went to him with a " How, is it you ? you here ? " 
 
 Brother Martin, seeing the company of young men, had remained 
 standing on the threshold. His eyes lighted up when he recognized 
 Raphael, and without saying a word he beckoned to him quickly 
 with the hand and stepped back into the house, out of which he had 
 come, and whose door still remained open. 
 
 Raphael followed him. He followed him through the room which 
 was at once sitting-room and kitchen. Through the door which 
 Brother Martin gently opened to the right, Raphael entered Irm- 
 gard's chamber, the bright, pleasant room with old, but well-waxed 
 and polished furniture, and the white, fine mats over the red bricks 
 forming the floor. What Raphael next observed upon entering was 
 the white marble image which was placed to the left by the wall on 
 a pedestal rudely formed of wood. He recognized a very good copy
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 295 
 
 of the fine head of Juno, which to-day is called the Juno Ludovisi. 
 A talented young man, Beppo's friend, had intrusted it to his care, 
 since the former had gone to his native place, Ceprano. Opposite to 
 this, on the opposite wall of the great room, upon the bed with plain 
 curtains of green serge, which were drawn back, he discovered Irm- 
 gard, her face flushed with a strong glow of fever, her eyes large, 
 with a weak, indifferent look directed toward those entering. At 
 the foot of the bed sat Uncle Kraps, again drooping over, staring at 
 the floor, moving his lips, still without uttering an intelligible word. 
 
 Raphael approached the bed. 
 
 " Is it you lying here in so bad a condition ? " said he, full of sym- 
 pathy, seizing her hand. " Poor child, so far from your land ! Have 
 you good nursing and everything you need ? Shall I send my 
 physician to you ? Shall I send you my Margarita, that she may 
 look after what is to be done ? You seem to be here with none but 
 men." 
 
 " My mother nurses her," here whispered Beppo, who had followed 
 the two men into the chamber. " We do everything possible, master, 
 to alleviate her bad condition. We have also had here Messer Arran- 
 ghi, who is a skillful surgeon and a reliable friend." 
 
 Irmgard nodded her head to Beppo as if in gratitude, and while so 
 doing smiled painfully, as if she would say, " From a physician is no 
 help for me." Then her glance wandered from the men who had 
 approached her bed, and was directed upon the wall before her, where, 
 over the head of her uncle, hung the painting in the old, black 
 frame, the pale head of Christ with the crown of thorns; an old 
 and unartistic picture of the time of Masaccio. 
 
 Her eyes took on something indescribably mild, spiritual, soulful, 
 as she directed them from those present toward the picture. 
 
 Raphael observed her awhile still with aroused sympathy ; yet, 
 since she did not again turn to him her glance, did not speak, and 
 seemed to forget those present, he turned away to the window, 
 through which one could overlook the little garden, at whose en- 
 trance one perceived the troop of the master's companions waiting. 
 
 " Why have you led me hither, Brother Martin ? " he here whis- 
 pered to the German monk. " If I can be of use here, tell me." 
 
 "See what she is looking at ! " responded Brother Martin, just as 
 softly. 
 
 " At the Eccc Homo ! " replied Raphael. " What of it ? "
 
 296 LUl^HER IN ROME. 
 
 Brother Martin did not answer. He took him by the hand and 
 led him out of the chamber and out of the little house. 
 
 Not till they were again in the garden did he say : 
 
 " I have brought my head back out of this chamber full of thoughts ; 
 and when I saw you, I beckoned you hither to show you something 
 which may also give you something to think about. That young 
 creature in there has a great heart and a deeply feeling soul ; there 
 is a full and pure human spirit in her ! She has, in the past night, 
 fallen into a remarkable adventure, and in it has been wounded, so 
 that she will hardly come out of it with life. She, at least, thinks 
 that she will die. And now, Master Raphael, have you followed the 
 glance of her brightening eye ? Did she look upon the masterpiece 
 of heathen art in her chamber, the head of a goddess gloriously hewn 
 out of marble, or the picture of Christ, of which you will best know 
 that it is indeed only right feebly and unskillfully painted ? To whom 
 did her soul fly ? To what did her heart, thirsting for consolation, 
 cling ? And where did she find comfort ? " 
 
 Raphael was silent awhile before he answered : 
 
 " You are thinking about our last discussion, and believe you have 
 vanquished me now by a tangible proof that to the human soul in 
 pain, only the art which serves faith is of benefit." 
 
 "And am I not right ?" 
 
 " No ; a Grecian maid in dying would certainly not have looked 
 upon the bleeding head of a tortured mortal, but the beautiful head 
 of the mother of the gods ! " 
 
 " Would it have given to her the comfort which the poor maiden 
 imbibes from the countenance of the Redeemer, and which is re- 
 flected by Irmgard's looks ? " 
 
 " It all depends," said Raphael, without answering the question, 
 " upon the ideas and thoughts which we have learned to associate 
 with the pictures. Let us throw all that aside ; still the truth re- 
 mains that the head of Juno is beautiful, the suffering head of the 
 primitive Christ is deeply moving. Out of both looks forth something 
 pure, great, human, in its noblest form. The one looks down upon 
 us from the height of beauty ; the other, out of the depths of soul. 
 The one compels us through the form ; the other, through the spirit 
 which stands beyond earthly beauty." 
 
 " Does not the spirit stand high above the form ? " 
 
 " Let us not contend about it ! Let us strive to unite the form of 
 one and the spirit of the other ; let us represent the perfect, but
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 297 
 
 pure, beauty of earthly form unabridged and undraped, but in the 
 light of most heavenly thoughts, in the midst of the clouds of 
 heaven ! " 
 
 Brother Martin nodded. 
 
 "Well, well," he replied, "with this word of yours I will then 
 be satisfied ; and let us also bring our discordant opinions to an 
 agreement, for I see I can yet reach no more with you ! " 
 
 "And now tell me," continued Raphael, "by what adventure has 
 this maiden " 
 
 "I cannot!" Brother Martin put in. "It is a secret of the 
 Confessional. The girl's uncle has confessed it to me. This 
 deranged and half-beastly man has no greater desire than to be able 
 to confess what has happened " 
 
 "Then pardon my question," broke in Raphael, "and farewell, 
 Brother Martin. My time presses. You know my house and the 
 way to me, in case you need any assistance for your German 
 friends. Good-night, then; and also to you, Beppo, good-night!" 
 
 Beppo had kept himself at a respectful distance upon the thresh- 
 old. He came now to accompany the master through the garden. 
 Brother Martin also took his departure ; he went overwhelmed with 
 his thoughts, excited as he had scarcely ever been in his 'life, a 
 feeling in head and breast as if they would burst.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE WATCH-DOG. 
 
 was a desolate road through a but scantily built-up, ruin- 
 filled neighborhood of Rome upon which Brother Martin 
 entered, over heights upon which arose the old Sabine 
 city of Quirium and Rome's most ancient capitol. Over 
 the ridge of the Quirinal Hill he wandered northward to Monte 
 Pincio, which was no less desolate ; for then Sixtus V. had not yet 
 built here, nor formed the streets which still to-day are called Via 
 Felice and Via Sistina, after this sarcastic and cunning, but brave 
 ruler. 
 
 There stood on this road poor, solitary houses covered in part 
 with reeds; churches lying isolated with cloister buildings attached; 
 ruins of old baronial towers ; darkly massive, broken-down archways 
 of antiquity ; mountains of rubbish and fragments of fallen structures 
 towering aloft ; between them cultivated fields, upon which, accord- 
 ing to the customs and rules of their forefathers, as already com- 
 plained of by Virgil, three or four kinds of products were being 
 coaxed at the same time from the same piece of ground. 
 
 The neighborhood was unfrequented, and so Brother Martin, 
 without becoming disturbed by meeting persons, could allow himself 
 to sink into the seething thoughts which, without his perceiving it 
 himself, now stormed forth in the hastening step ; now made him 
 stand still as if rooted to the ground, directing his eye feebly upon 
 some point to his left in the panorama of the Eternal City below 
 him, a point which he still did not perceive. 
 
 What he had experienced on this day ! 
 
 The Pope had thrust him back with his soul-life filling his whole 
 heart. He had seen how from up there the church was ruled by the 
 " Holy Spirit ! " 
 
 He had, through that which Irmgard's uncle confessed to him, 
 thrown a glance into the dark, wherein lay the weapons with which
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 299 
 
 the "Holy Spirit " defended and maintained its government. The 
 picture of the " Chapel of the Immured " stood before him, and 
 caused the blood to congeal in his veins. 
 
 And while he was now walking along, agitated in his innermost 
 being, as if incited and scourged by the storm in him to some strong, 
 violent action, to some deed which could save him from distress, it 
 seemed to him as if something ran near him, an evil spirit, a cun- 
 ning, jeering animal, which looked at him as that watchful dog of 
 the poet, 
 
 " Within the heart-depths most profound 
 
 Of e'en the most avowed believer, 
 Sits Doubt, the ever-watchful hound, 
 To bay at Christ as a deceiver." 
 
 It was heart-gnawing doubt which ran near the form of the un- 
 happy German monk walking along over the heights of Rome. 
 
 He fixed his eyes upon it as the shadow lengthened which the sun, 
 setting behind the Vatican, threw near him upon the dry, hard grass- 
 plot, drawing upon the ground a giant image of the dark man in the 
 gown, with the ends of his garment fluttering behind him in the 
 wind. 
 
 Had he been able to exorcise the Devil, as the Pope gave him 
 credit for, he would have hurled his most powerful exorcisms against 
 this Devil. He could not do it. 
 
 The dog barked on and on. 
 
 "There is no original sin!" said his barking. "It is not true, 
 that proposition about original sin. And upon this rests everything. 
 With this everything falls. What impelled this confounded half- 
 witless old man to confess to me, with such anxiety of soul, that he 
 had killed a man that he was the murderer of Savelli ? What else 
 but because the most enveloped human nature is something originally 
 good, which impels it to remove from itself the evil, to hurl it away, 
 and to become healed from it, as from a cancer ? " 
 
 If he had heard Beppo's confession to Frau Giulietta, Luther 
 would have added: "What impels this young man to atone for a 
 sin with which he reproaches himself through a pain, through 
 anxiety and distress, which he takes upon himself? What is this 
 pain in him other than the bitter medicine which he will sip against 
 the evil that has come into his good nature ? The evil, sin, is only 
 the foreign, diseased stuff, the matter which shall suppurate in pain
 
 300 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 and smarting. Man is good, is originally good, not originally bad. 
 The conscience is the umbilical cord by which he is connected with 
 the original maternal good. The feeling that he is descended 
 from an original good, that he is a piece of it, gives to him 
 faith. Faith is the perception of the good ruling the world. The 
 illusion of hereditary sin creates the illusion of the Devil. Evil is 
 only a sickening of the good, an illness, as a fever is an illness. 
 What is a fever ? Is it a being ? No. It is nothing lasting, nothing 
 having an existence. No, no ; the strings of the human soul have a 
 beautiful and pure tone, although they may get out of tune. Get- 
 ing out of tune, not the tune, is the evil. Cold is only want of heat. 
 Evil is only want of good. Therefore do not ask, ' How came evil 
 into the world ? Through a serpent ? ' Foolishness ! Did not 
 Moses hang your loathsome serpent around the cross ? The ser- 
 pent which you have wound around the cross, that is your lie and 
 fraud. The cross ! That calls to mind the voluntary death of Him 
 who was willing to take upon himself the suffering of mankind ; and 
 from those features, even now, the sick Irmgard derives conso- 
 lation. Upon himself, the blessed one, for he is stronger than we 
 all. If we think of all the grief of the poor human race, the im- 
 pulse seizes us to take upon ourselves a bit of all this sorrow around 
 us. We would like to bow the neck to fate, and call to it : ' Place 
 upon me a part of the burden ; I will help the unhappy one to bear 
 it ; give my brother's care to me for one day. Let him for this one 
 day rejoice ! ' 
 
 " That lies in human nature. Is human nature bad ? 
 
 " Is there a hereditary sin in this Irmgard, who does not com- 
 plain, and is consoled because she has sacrificed her life for him 
 whose life and happiness she believes herself to have purchased 
 through the sacrifice ? 
 
 " Is it a depraved nature which looks out of her eyes upon the 
 picture of Christ as upon that of a man who is her God, but also her 
 brother in pain ? " 
 
 So barked the dog which ran near the monk over the precipice of 
 the Pincian Hill, a heretical dog ; an animal like the "poodle" of 
 Faust, but, truly, the "poodle's " inner nature was different. Still, his 
 bark tormented the poor monk inexpressibly. Since he felt himself 
 as if broken, and since to his breast the act of breathing became 
 difficult, he dropped down upon a ridge covered with short grass, 
 which lay vacant between two built-up pieces of ground. He
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 301 
 
 mopped his brow with his handkerchief, and then supported his 
 broad chin upon the arm propped up by his knees. 
 
 With gloomy brows drawn together he looked over to the " Eternal 
 City" and to the Vatican, which, with its proud and firm mass, was 
 darkly delineated upon the horizon, because the sun stood already 
 behind it. 
 
 Over there in the Vatican this Master Raphael Santi painted on 
 the walls his pictures for the Pope, beautiful, sinless human forms 
 such as Plato considered the embodied thoughts of God. 
 
 Was not this Raphael right ? Brother Martin began to understand 
 him. But then, then, if he was right, then everything, all theology 
 and all scholasticism, tumbled into a heap. Mankind had been for so 
 many centuries a wanderer in the night ! 
 
 After awhile there came this way an old man driving a donkey 
 before him. He stopped before the monk, and asked : 
 
 " Eh, brother, do you wish to get the perniciosa? " 
 
 Brother Martin looked up. 
 
 "What shall I get?" 
 
 "Do. you not know that whoever sits upon the ground here con- 
 tracts the fever, the perniciosa ? " 
 
 "The perniciosa," replied Brother Martin, smiling bitterly ; "cer- 
 tainly, certainly. I know it seizes upon the human frame here, and 
 I believe it shakes mine already." 
 
 He arose and walked on to his cloister.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 SAN DOMINICO'S TORCH AND SERPENT. 
 
 HEN Padre Geronimo, the Inquisitor, had returned from 
 the Vatican to his cloister at Santa Sabina, he had the 
 prior and Father Eustachius called to him into the clois- 
 ter-garden, into which he had gone down. He had asked 
 ^to have himself informed of what had happened during his absence, 
 and the prior had imparted to him that the order-brethren down in 
 the city, at Santa Minerva, had undertaken the careful oversight of 
 the German servant of the escaped Count Egino, of whom it was to 
 be supposed that he would seek out his master, in case he had not 
 been informed of the latter's stopping-place ; also, that some one had 
 discovered the trace of the German maiden who had accompanied 
 Egino at his first entrance into the cloister ; that she had some 
 weeks before arrived from Germany with a kinsman, had resided at 
 the German inn, and after some days had withdrawn from there 
 no one knew whither, but some one from Santa Minerva would use 
 all diligence to find her again. " And, finally," said the prior, con- 
 cluding his information by bringing the most important last, " some 
 one has again undertaken an examination of the vaults, and has dis- 
 coverd that the wall separating the subterranean rooms of the cloister 
 from those of the Savelli Castle have been broken through, and 
 walled up again with careless haste." 
 
 "One thing yet you have forgotten to mention, worthy father," 
 added Father Eustachius; "that is, that Brother Alessio has become 
 sick of a fever, which seems to have its foundation more in an 
 excitement or anxiety of mind or a suffering dread than in any other 
 cause." 
 
 "The lay brother Alessio ? " asked the Inquisitor. 
 
 "He was intrusted with the service of the German count," added 
 Father Eustachius. 
 
 "That is remarkable ; you may investigate what is the matter
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 303 
 
 with him, Eustachius," replied Padre Geronimo, while he seated 
 himself upon a stone bench under the old olive tree which tradition 
 asserted Saint Dominicus himself had planted. "But," he con- 
 tinued, "it is not strange, what you inform me of the penetrated 
 wall. How could it all have been possible without that ? It was 
 just a long prearranged plan, in which two strong and clever 
 men have labored to each other's hand. From one side they 
 have caused that dividing wall to be broken through ; from the other, 
 under the pretext of searching for the treasures of antiquity, they 
 have built for themselves a way into our vaults " 
 
 " What are you saying, Padre Geronimo ? " exclaimed the prior, in 
 astonishment. 
 
 The exercise-master only smiled; it was only what he had long 
 suspected. 
 
 "So," continued the Inquisitor, "they have forced their way in, 
 and set the German count free. In the same hour of the night, 
 the Countess Corradina has come hither from the side of the castle, 
 prepared for flight ; Livio Savelli has surprised them, has opposed 
 her flight with the German, and the accomplices of the two fugi- 
 itves have choked him. Thus it has happened ; it can only 
 have happened thus. I see through it all ! " 
 
 The prior nodded. 
 
 "Yes ; it must have been so ! " he exclaimed. "If we could only 
 succeed in getting hold of this malefactor, this German count ! " 
 
 "This malefactor, this German count, has done something that is 
 only natural; he has sought his liberty," responded Padre Geronimo; 
 " perhaps only allowed himself led into liberty by those who acted 
 for him. The wicked ones are those who, insolently and sacrilegi- 
 ously, have forced their way into our sacred precincts, not those 
 who have fled from them." 
 
 "Well, yes," said the prior; "and they " 
 
 "And over them we have no power," said Padre Geronimo, 
 interrupting him ; "they stand, at present, too high for us to do well 
 in stretching out our hand against them." 
 
 " Too high ? Who in Rome or in the world can stand so high 
 that you, worthy brother, are not allowed to call him before your 
 judgment-seat, even though he were an anointed king? " 
 
 " Of course," answered the Inquisitor, " we are invested with all 
 rights and all power ; there are wanting to us neither laws accord- 
 ing to which to pass sentence, nor arms with which to execute it.
 
 304 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 But there is also no lack of wisdom which says to us when it is 
 time to let those laws rest, to let those arms lie unused, and to keep 
 ourselves silent until the hour for action has come." 
 
 The Inquisitor might possess this wisdom ; but to the prior, that 
 of understanding his reasons was wanting. 
 
 " But I pray you, Padre Geronimo," he said, " if we may not 
 punish that which happened last night, or let it go unnoticed of our 
 own accord, it is all over with our authority and all the hitherto 
 wholesome dread which the Sant Uffizio " 
 
 Padre Geronimo made with his hand a motion of warding off. 
 
 "Don't be concerned about that," he said. "'Raro antecedentem 
 scelestum deseruit pede pcena claudo? writes even Horace, the heathen 
 poet." 
 
 "But these offenders who stand so high," remarked the prior; 
 " who should they be ? " 
 
 " Of these offenders, one is Master Raphael Santi," said the 
 Inquisitor. 
 
 " Raphael Santi, the great master from Urbino ? " exclaimed the 
 prior. 
 
 "He," replied Padre Geronimo, "no other than he. That Ger- 
 man monk of whom the talk was, who is named Fra Martino, - and 
 who is of a heretical spirit through and through, has had some inter- 
 course with Master Raphael ; for what other purpose, pray, but to in- 
 duce him to make the excavations through which all that has hap- 
 pened has first become possible. For certainly the gate of the 
 castle over there was too well locked and guarded for an entrance 
 from that side to have seemed possible to them. So just as the 
 Countess Corradina has stood on one side, Master Santi has stood on 
 the other, to dig under our feet this mine of wickedness. I see 
 through that only too well ; and you, worthy brother, will now see 
 through my motives when I say, Do not, in the first place, let 
 this German monk escape your eye, and follow the road which he 
 traverses ; but against the others, let us not act to-day, nor to- 
 morrow, but when the time shall come." 
 
 The prior nodded understandingly, and Father Eustachius said: 
 
 "You are right, Padre Geronimo. Perhaps over this Raphael, who 
 is a noisy fool and heathen, as are all these art folk, this San Gallo, 
 and Buonarroti, and Bramante, this whole sect of Plato, will also yet 
 come the turning about and enlightening." 
 
 Padre Geronimo shook his head.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 305 
 
 "Let us hope," he said, "that soon something else will come over 
 them, the wrath of our Holy Father. And it wzY/come upon them. 
 The Holy Father does not understand that one may jest with him, 
 and they, these masters, are haughty and overbearing, and will risk 
 everything. Just see how they stride about here, Santi like a prince 
 with the retinue of his court. They say he also intends to have a 
 princely palace built in the Borgo. And Michael Angelo Buonarroti, 
 indeed ! When he comes stalking past, with his broad ox-head and 
 the shoulders of a wood-carrier, alone and with clownish bearing, one 
 might think he looks upon the world as if it is a bad block of marble, 
 without value till his chisel may hew it right ! And has he not 
 already once defied the Holy Father, and been obliged to save him- 
 self by a hasty flight to Florence and Venice ? Such an hour of 
 anger and of disfavor will sooner or later come over that other one, 
 him of Urbino. Then will the time have come for us to talk with 
 him and his whole crowd about Plato. The church forgets nothing. 
 If from the protection of those who have become intoxicated from 
 the sinful cup of their ' beauty,' they are too powerful for us to-day, 
 San Dominico's holy torch burns yet farther in stillness, and at 
 some future time it will throw its enlightening rays down into the 
 writing-room of the Platonic thinkers, and the workshop of these 
 artists, into all these armories of the Devil ! Go, my brethren, go 
 now; they are ringing for the vigils. Go and pray that the hour 
 may come." 
 
 The prior and the exercise-master departed. Padre Geronimo, 
 however, remained yet longer, sitting meditatively upon the stone 
 bench under the olive tree of the great saint. Desponding thoughts 
 came over him. Had it really come so far that the penal power of 
 the church was not free, that it could no longer seize upon one who 
 seemed to it guilty ? Had the sons of San Dominico to make them- 
 selves reproaches that they exercised their office too idly and negli- 
 gently, and therefore the blossoms of sin stood so flourishing in the 
 world ? Was it on that account that everything that called itself 
 cultivated had fallen away from the faith, despised the sacraments, 
 and danced about the golden calf of classic heathenism ? Did they, 
 on this account, ridicule the doctrine of the church concerning hell 
 and purgatory, and swear, according to Pliny, that there is no differ- 
 ence between souls of men and those of beasts ? " 
 
 Padre Geronimo became absorbed in meditation. It was clear to 
 him something must happen contrary to this condition of things.
 
 306 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 The church had let her two punishing arms fall asleep, and she must 
 lift them up. Every force calling itself infallible needs these arms 
 to maintain itself. It needs censorship for the minds and the sword 
 for the bodies. The Inquisition is no mere outgrowtJi of an infallible 
 church; it is a consequence, a necessary consequence of tJie principle, and 
 will always be there again so soon as the circumstances of the time 
 make it possible. Behind the infallible and absolute power of princes 
 stands the traitor's gallows ; behind the infallible church, the fune- 
 ral-pyre. 
 
 " But," Padre Geronimo asked himself, " was it enough, as things 
 stood to-day, if San Dominico's sons protect themselves, and swing 
 their torches over the great orgies, the 'Platonic feast of souls'? 
 Must there not be created near the power which judged and pun- 
 ished, a new one, which also essentially subjugated souls ? Should 
 it not be just as it was when, against the great apostasy of souls in 
 the Albigensian times, there were drawn into the field two powers* 
 Arnold, the legate, and Simon von Montfort, the general ? Could an 
 order, one of the oldest orders at that, be looked out to take charge 
 of this mission ? Was there one in a condition to march out against 
 culture with equal armor, against the science of the learned with 
 knowledge ? No, no ; there was none. If the lion of St. Dominicus 
 drew out to the contest, a serpent must be near him to give him aid ; 
 and this serpent was not there in the ark of the hierarchy. A greater 
 charmer must throw his staff upon the ground, like the magician of 
 Pharaoh, out of which must proceed an entirely new serpent, one 
 never before seen. 
 
 Padre Geronimo clung to this thought, which, after thirty years, 
 was to find its fulfillment, not through the initiation of a great wiz- 
 ard, but through that of a Spanish knight-errant,* who, with the 
 comprehensive and tragic fanaticism of Don Quixote for Donna von 
 Toboso, devoted himself to the service of Donna Infallibility ; and 
 to him the world is indebted if since then, in the mental crop of 
 mankind, in the fruitful valleys of science, an injurious insect, a 
 black grain-bug, has been committing ravage. 
 
 Padre Geronimo at length arose. The twilight had settled down, 
 and out of some windows of the neighboring Savelli castle one saw 
 the bright glimmer of light force its way ; also a low, swelling 
 choral song of monks became perceptible : it came out of the 
 chamber in which the body of Livio Savelli lay in state. 
 
 * Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CORRADINA. 
 
 |N the evening of the next day, Brother Martin passed 
 through the Porta del Popolo, down the Flaminian Way, 
 to the villa of Signer Callisto. 
 
 When he knocked at the gate in the wall shutting off 
 the villa from the road, there appeared an old gardener, who shoved 
 him back. " No one is at home," he said ; " Signer Callisto has gone 
 on a journey." Only upon his urgent request to speak with the mis- 
 tress, did the old man conclude to announce him. 
 
 Now soon, thereupon, Signor Callisto himself appeared in the re- 
 opening door. 
 
 " I guessed that it was you, Fra Martino ! " he said. " Step in 
 quickly ; it is not necessary that any one should see us." 
 
 After Brother Martin had entered, the door was again secured by 
 a heavy bolt. 
 
 Brother Martin's eye, as he was walking through the garden at 
 Callisto's side, rested upon a picture of great beauty. Behind him, 
 behind Monte Mario, the sun was going down. From the reflection 
 of the evening glow, the eastern sky before him was overspread with 
 indescribably beautiful tints of rose and violet, and of the finest 
 blending of green and gold. Upon the background of this ravishing 
 play of colors arose the " parva domus" \ and upon the pergola of 
 this charming, green-entwined building sat, with arm resting upon 
 the parapet, a female form, whose contour, full of grace, was de- 
 lineated upon the roseate surface. 
 
 It was Corradina, who, her chin supported upon her hand, was 
 gazing upon the sinking sunlight and the purple glow of the golden, 
 flaming evening sky. 
 
 When Callisto had led the monk up to her she cordially reached 
 him her hand. 
 
 "You are the man," she said, "of whom Count Egino would 
 
 307
 
 308 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 have me receive a castigatory sermon. I hope, though, the courage 
 to blame us will fail you when you see in what trouble we are. Have 
 you learned anything of the poor German girl who showed us the way 
 to rescue ? " 
 
 " I have spent part of to-day with her, and I come from her, count- 
 ess," replied Brother Martin. 
 
 " And in what condition is she ? " 
 
 " Not good, I fear, for she is very weak." 
 
 " How you alarm me ! Has she a physician ? Has she a nurse ?" 
 
 "Both." 
 
 "God be with the poor girl ! If I could go to her if I dared to 
 go ! But I dare not, truly ! Upon her no suspicion will fall ; no one 
 will think of her, of her or the dreadful man with the strength of an 
 ox who accompanied her. After me they will put out spies at every 
 corner. I dare not take a step out of this villa." 
 
 " No ; you dare not do it," remarked Callisto, " not at the risk of 
 your life ! Believe me, the Germans are well provided for by their 
 worthy Frau Giulietta, and no one suspects them there. The only 
 thing you can do for them is to endanger them by no approach, or 
 even message." 
 
 "I understand that, Signer Callisto; but you," she turned to 
 Brother Martin, "do not tell Count Egino that she is in such a bad 
 condition. He also lies prostrated with fever, which has returned 
 violently in consequence of the excitement of night before last ; he 
 needs indulgence ! " 
 
 " I. will obey you, countess." 
 
 She arose, and beckoned to Brother Martin. He followed her with 
 the lawyer into the sitting-room adjoining the pergola. There she 
 showed him through an open door into a second bright and beautiful 
 room, into which the purple evening light of the western heavens 
 threw its full splendor. Egino lay upon a couch, half enveloped with 
 a coverlet. Joyously he extended his right hand to Brother Martin. 
 
 " Brother Martin, how fine that you have come ! " he exclaimed. 
 "Is it not true that you are rejoiced to find me alive and at liberty, 
 rejoiced as a true friend? Of course you find me a little sick and 
 weak, but not bad ; to-morrow, day after to-morrow, the old strength 
 will return. Bring me good news from Irmgard, and I will throw 
 from me all care, in order to become well. Do you look at me ques- 
 tioningly and in wonder, Brother Martin? You believe just anxiety 
 must kill me, anxiety about my noble lady, the Countess Corradina,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 309 
 
 and her destiny, and the fearful situation in which even I, no one but 
 myself, have brought her through my passionate action ; that peni- 
 tence, torturing of conscience on her account must not let me 
 breathe ? Ah ! you do not know her, Brother Martin ; you do not 
 know with what kindly words she has comforted and quieted me ! 
 You do not know with what graciousness she condescends to me, 
 most needy one that I am, and tells me that she is not angry with 
 me; that she receives what has happened quietly and calmly as a dis- 
 pensation of Heaven to lead her out of a far more dreadful condition 
 into liberty and independence. You do not know " 
 
 Corradina now stepped up, and placing her hand upon Egino's 
 arm, she said : 
 
 "Count Egino, you dare not talk so much ; do you hear ?" 
 
 " You are right, Countess, and I obey. But Fra Martino will be 
 eager to hear our story." 
 
 "Then I will tell it to him, if you wish him to know it ; but in the 
 meantime you must listen in silence, without interrupting me with a 
 word. Do you promise that ? " 
 
 "I promise to obey every word of yours to the end of my life, 
 Corradina, my noble lady ! " replied Egino, drawing her hand to his 
 lips. 
 
 "Well, then, seat yourself, Fra Martino," said Corradina, while 
 she seated herself upon the foot of Egino's couch. 
 
 Martin took his place upon one of the high-backed chairs standing 
 around. 
 
 Signor Callisto brought a bowl with some cooling potion, and 
 placed it upon a little table close to Egino's couch. Then he went 
 out, as Corradina had, on yesterday, given him an account of the 
 whole story of her flight. Had he been aware that the countess was 
 upon the point of relating to them, not only the experience through 
 which she had been led into his house, but her whole life-history, so 
 that Egino might now hear it, he would certainly not have shut him- 
 self out from the circle of those remaining behind. But Corradina 
 did not detain him. She sat erect with her hands folded in her lap, 
 turning her wonderfully beautiful countenance to the glowing sky- 
 light ; while Brother Martin, tired, and still in suspense, had sunk 
 back against the cushioned back of his chair, and the sick man had 
 supported upon his arm his blond head, with his glowing eyes 
 directed upon Corradina. 
 
 " If your German friend," began Corradina, with a look as of in-
 
 3 io LUTHER IN ROME, 
 
 quiry resting upon the young monk, "is to judge of my actions, he 
 must know everything that has led me where he now sees me, in 
 this retreat, hidden, fleeing, poor and outcast. He must know how 
 I grew up ; how I came to years of maturity ; what I experienced ; 
 what I have had to struggle through up to this hour. I grew up, 
 without a mother, in the old, large, and ruined castle of Anticoli, at 
 the side of my father ; a severe and hard man, who, through his nar- 
 rations of the power and elevation of our great and once world-ruling 
 race, of the deeds of those who were the most illustrious bearers of 
 its great and incomparable renown, did everything to make me proud 
 and self-conscious. He could not do this without, at the same time, 
 bringing into my young soul a great bitterness, through the contrast 
 of these reminiscences, with the needy and ruined condition around 
 me, with the restricted circumstances of our house. Fortunately 
 there lay an antidote in the peculiar bitterness of his heart over 
 these circumstances. The soul-weaknesses of parents are seldom the 
 inheritance of the children ; they only early take an example from 
 their parents. My father was not poor. Our possessions were 
 large, but they were encumbered with debt. Since the great invasion 
 of Rome, instituted a hundred years ago by the Colonnas, with whom 
 we have almost always been allied, our house had suffered a great 
 deal. Paolo Orsini, the Pope's commander-in-chief, had taken my 
 forefather, Corradino di Antiochia, prisoner, and had him executed, 
 and much of our possessions had then been taken from our people. 
 My father had a Savelli for a wife. Her estate had served to liqui- 
 date the debts, to lift again mortgages and alienations, to bring the 
 estate into better condition. The utmost economy sustained my 
 father in this struggle, in which all his thoughts and all his activity 
 were engaged ; for' our house did not become more habitable, our 
 number of servants greater, our table better furnished, our gate more 
 frequently opened to guests, as we became richer. When I was 
 eight years old my mother had died, and my entire companionship 
 consisted, from that on, of an old nurse and a very young goat-shep- 
 herdess, whom my father had given to me as a chambermaid. His 
 daily company was Fra Niccolo, the house chaplain, who instructed 
 me in reading and writing, and then in Latin, while my father 
 taught me German. He almost always spoke German with me : 
 speaking German was a tradition in our house. So I grew up. Of 
 the world I saw and heard nothing, only what was related to me by 
 rare, individual guests who came out of it and took lodging with us ;
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 311 
 
 they were mostly those belonging to the house of Savelli. As I 
 said before, my mother was a Savelli of Aricia. She, however, who 
 had brought to our house new prosperity, desired that this wealth 
 should at some time flow back to her house, and that I should be 
 wedded to one of the sons of her cousin, the duke. I was, indeed, 
 the only child, the only heiress ; she had never presented to my father 
 a son. So it was decided that I should marry Luca ; my mother was 
 still resolved upon it. If Luca Savelli came to us, he called me his 
 'spouse,' even at an age when this 'spouse' was not much larger 
 than the largest of her dolls. We played together, and quarreled, 
 and fought : although he was much older than I, he occasionally got 
 the worst of these encounters. I believe he hated me on that ac- 
 count, just as I found him intolerable. I had a playmate who 
 pleased me much better ; he was of my own age, and instead of 
 calling me 'spouse,' as Luca did, and wishing to rule me, he was 
 intent upon doing everything I wished, and granting to me every- 
 thing that I suggested. He was the brother of my chambermaid, 
 and as poor as she, and guarded the goats upon the cliffs and in the 
 bushes around our castle. His name was Mario, and he had eyes of 
 wonderful beauty, large, and dark, and soft, like those of a young girl. 
 Angela and Mario and I, we formed as peaceful a company for play 
 as only brothers and sisters could. I know not which I loved 
 better, Angela or Mario. My father troubled himself little about 
 me. In fine weather he let me tumble around out of doors ; in bad 
 weather he let me take refuge in the parlor, where stood a great old 
 chest, in which were preserved manuscripts, parchments, and books, 
 old as well as new. I read first in the new ones secretly, for 
 Fra Niccolo must not see it. He called all new books homilies 
 of the Devil and poison for the soul ; and he was right. These new 
 books were novels and stories of wanton import : as that poison 
 which dilates the pupil of the eye and sharpens the vision, it sharp- 
 ened my eye for things I should not have perceived at that age. I 
 grew upon it. Guests now appeared more frequently at the Castle 
 of Anticoli, and among them young men, relatives, friends of the 
 Savelli, whom they brought with them. There was a cardinal 
 among them, a relative of the Colonna of Palliano, with whom Livio 
 Savelli was to become connected by marriage. Livio brought him to 
 our house. Cardinal Rafael was archbishop in one city, bishop in 
 two, had abbeys and benefices, and was not yet thirty years of age ; 
 but he was clever, eloquent, even learned, and they said he would yet
 
 312 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 become Pope. With all this he sued earnestly for my favor ; but 
 only too soon I understood his passionate nature, and the fire in his 
 eyes when he spoke to me, and I shrank from his approaches. I 
 could not refuse a costly present which he brought to me from Rome, 
 one day ; my father did not permit it. I could not speak to my father, 
 I would not speak to Luca, openly, about the cardinal's advances. 
 But I avoided him ; I fled from him now. Fra Niccolo reproached 
 me for it. He praised for me Rafael's high rank and merit ; he 
 brought to me secretly a letter from the cardinal. I was horrified at 
 this behavior on the part of the pious brother whom I had respected. 
 While I tore this letter in pieces, I had a feeling as if the earth were 
 giving away under me, as if a flood of hatred came over me against 
 these priests, against these men. In the presence of Fra Niccolo I 
 stamped the pieces of the letter with my feet. The cardinal did not 
 allow himself frightened off. He pursued me as before. I stole 
 away from the castle as often as I could when he was there. I com- 
 plained of my trouble to Angela, and Angela related it to her 
 brother ; and when I next saw Mario, he swore that, as soon as the 
 cardinal should hunt again with Livio in the forest of Anticoli, as he 
 was wont to do, he would crack his head with a stone out of his 
 pouch with his shepherd's sling. Fra Niccolo surprised us, Mario 
 and myself, in innocent, confidential chat. He may have long been 
 suspicious of my intercourse with Mario, the foul man. He threat- 
 ened me with the wrath of my father. I answered him defiantly, and 
 turned my back upon him. Still, he did not carry out his threat ; but 
 he must have presented the matter to Rafael, for the cardinal took 
 it upon himself next day to make me the bitterest and most passion- 
 ate reproaches for throwing myself away, for rambling about like 
 something wild, and having intercourse with a barefooted boy, as if 
 he were my equal. He dared to inveigh against me as if he had a 
 right. Aroused, I cut him short. ' And what does it concern you,' 
 I cried, 'if I converse with my playmates, and who my playmates 
 are? If you were even Luca, who calls himself my spouse I hate 
 him not much less than I hate you but from him it would be less 
 mad! But you you are nothing to me, nothing but an object of 
 abhorrence ! I hate you, I despise you ! To me, Mario's honest 
 eyes are dearer than all the cardinals in the world, with Luca in- 
 cluded, who is none, but deserves to be." 
 
 " Rafael, mute with astonishment and pale with anger, left 
 me alone. On the very next day he took his departure. But he
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 313 
 
 had taken care to revenge himself. It fills me with horror to 
 tell you how. For that which I had said to his face, he made 
 poor Mario suffer. He was fallen upon by bandits, and they thrust 
 his eyes out.* 
 
 " That is dreadful ! " here put in Egino. 
 
 Corradina, as if to appease him, laid her hand upon his uplifted 
 arm, while her glance maintained the same direction, straight 
 out into the glowing evening sky. Brother Martin had raised 
 himself erect, and then bowed forward ; propping his hands upon his 
 knees, he stared at the narrator. 
 
 "Mario is dead," she said; and then added, with a painful sigh: 
 " I had not loved Mario ; never, except in dreams, had the thought 
 come to me that I could be his wife. But my grief for him was as 
 great as if I had loved him, and all the power of rebellion in me 
 became aroused, and mingled itself in this grief with a bitterness 
 I cannot describe. From this day on, I was as if transformed. 
 I became fond of solitude, shy of people ; I secluded myself all 
 day long with the books of my father, among which I now began to 
 prefer the ancient ones, the chronicles containing accounts of my 
 forefathers, to those which had before kept me occupied. I sent 
 Angela from me, because I could not endure that her eyes 
 should look upon me, for they were the eyes of Mario. I began 
 to live in a world quite for myself alone, which was peopled 
 with gentle, motherly women and noble, strong, knightly men, 
 creatures of the imagination ; to whom I gave the names of my 
 ancestors found in the old history books and annals, the names 
 of Manfred, Enzio, Constanze, Beatrix, Isabella, Elizabeth, Sibylla. 
 I dreamed myself in the midst of these j I saw myself standing 
 near them and talking with them ; my young wisdom gave them 
 advice, which being followed would most certainly have guarded 
 them against their tragic fates, if they would only have listened 
 to me in my youthfulness. Oh ! certainly then would Corradina 
 have crushed to the earth the bloodhound of Anjou, and Manfred 
 would not have been beaten by Benevent ! And in an old 
 manuscript proceeding from my grandfather, from him who was the 
 dearest and most beloved of all, from Frederic II., I buried myself, 
 and read it again and again, and brooded over it, and inquired 
 about separate places and sentences, whether the thought I 
 placed there was really that which stood there ; I racked my brains 
 
 *Compare this with a similar deed in Roscoe's " Life of Leo X.," Vol I. p. 431 of the German 
 translation, and Gilbert's " Lucretia Borgia," p. 279, of the German edition. (Leipzig, 1870.)
 
 3 i4 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 over it, uncertain, anxious, fearing that it was so, and still again 
 exulting that it was so ; for these passages and sentences were 
 alarming to my childish faith, but they gave me revenge upon 
 the cardinal, upon Fra Niccolo, upon the men around me. There 
 lay therein the thoughts, the most secret thoughts, of a man 
 who surveyed the illusions surrounding his contemporaries, as a 
 mountain-peak the mist and vapor of the valley ; thoughts and truths, 
 like the mountain-brook coming down from the heights clear and 
 crystal pure, in order, ever roaring more loudly, to become by 
 degrees the mighty waters, the broad, flowing stream which has 
 become irresistible in his course, and widely masters the land." 
 
 " And what manuscript was that ? " here asked Brother Martin. 
 
 " I will yet tell you about that ; let me go on now," answered 
 Corradina. "When I became torn away from my solitude, and 
 forced into intercourse with men, I showed a disposition entirely 
 changed. I was no more talkative, loving harmless chat, still timid 
 and bashful, and my composure easily disturbed by a word, as I was 
 before. I had become monosyllabic, but more certain ; I spoke 
 little, but that was what I thought and held for true. I learned 
 to dispute, to have courage with my opinions. He who put him- 
 self into a war of words with me did not always end it as victor ; and 
 since I spoke out of the bitter feeling which filled me for the men 
 around me, I must very often have been wounding, bold, and im- 
 perative in my speech. And still this appeared to offend no one ; 
 on the contrary, it was as if one now, for the first time, was rightly 
 intent upon showing me favor. 
 
 " When I became nineteen years of age I lost my father, after a 
 short illness ; he spoke, to me still upon his death-bed of Luca 
 Savelli as my future husband. I would not trouble him, dying, by my 
 opposition ; I was silent, and submitted, also, when the Duke of 
 Aricia, chosen my guardian after my father's death, ordered that I 
 live from now on with his daughter-in-law, Livio Savelli's wife, and 
 in the world should there become schooled and cultivated. I must 
 leave our castle. It was to my spirit as if I were taking leave, not 
 only of my father's house, of all associations, of my liberty, it was 
 more : it was to me as if I were taking leave of myself ; as if I would 
 be treated like some kind of stuff, a pleasing metal, which one 
 changes and pours into a new shape ; and that I would be turned 
 into a new being and a new appearance in Rome, in the castles of 
 the Savelli and Colonna, in their company, in their restless doing
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 315 
 
 and living, that was for me like the life of an entirely different kind 
 of people. And yet how did I remain so entirely the same ; how 
 did I, in this world which repelled me, remain true to feeling and 
 thinking entirely my way ; how came a stubborn power of resistance 
 over me in the midst of the immoral extravagance surrounding me \ 
 Livio's wife was unfaithful to her husband, and put herself to no 
 trouble to conceal this from my eyes. Livio, on the contrary, con- 
 ceived a passion for me, but he had not the courage, or he considered 
 it not prudent, to confess it openly to me he let me guess it ; he 
 played the part of restraining, mastering himself, and became his 
 brother Luca's apologist to me. He played a finely weighed game ! 
 He calculated how, when I had become Luca's wife, my husband 
 would make me miserable ; and how then, in my distress, I should be 
 obliged to fall into his wide-open, protecting arms ! The more plainly 
 I gave Luca to understand my abhorrence of him, so much the more 
 he treated me as his own property, his slave. We often had 
 struggles ; and then his father, my guardian, stepped between us, 
 and took me into his protection so excitedly and passionately, that I 
 soon lost my candor toward him also. Even he, even the man of 
 fifty, began to woo me, and to increase the despair with which I 
 became filled in this circle, which should have formed for me the 
 protecting family circle ! Fortunately the duke was shy of his sons ; 
 he feared Livio, and Livio was aroused when he made the discovery 
 that his father had conceived the thought that he would himself 
 make me his wife, since I would not have Luca. 
 
 "Those were dreadful days for me, a poor young creature who had 
 no friend, no help upon earth. My servants had been sought out by 
 the duke ; Livio's wife believed her duty toward me fulfilled when 
 she had imparted to me the refined customs of society, and the art of 
 clothing and adorning myself with taste. She jested over her hus- 
 band's devotion to me ; she called me the marble princess, and took 
 delight in the way in which I rudely and sharply defended myself 
 against the men, whose passions I only thereby aroused and stimu- 
 lated. 
 
 " How often in those days have I envied Angela ; how often have 
 I wished myself in the place of this girl, who was again guarding her 
 goats, barefooted, upon the forest heights of Anticoli ! 
 
 " Two years thus fled by ; we were mostly in Aricia, also in 
 Palliano, or in Livio's castle at Albano, which the duke had cut off 
 for him at his marriage ; occasionally we were here in Rome.
 
 316 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Finally, Luca's increasing illness compelled us to a longer stay in 
 Rome ; and here it was that I declared my resolution to become the 
 dying Luca's wife. It seemed to me the only way to become free, 
 free from the wooings of the duke, whom I most feared, and 
 independent as a widow, to whom one must give back part of her 
 possessions ; free for the future from the addresses of other men, 
 for I hated them all. Luca died the morning of the day set for the 
 marriage. I still remained ready for this marriage. Livio insisted 
 now, likewise, upon the ceremony, with the concurrence of his wife, 
 who thought as did he about the intention of the duke. I agreed ; 
 the duke dared no opposition and so that occurred of which you 
 were a witness, Count Egino." 
 
 " You allowed yourself wedded to the dead ? " exclaimed Brother 
 Martin, horrified. 
 
 " I allowed myself wedded to the dead ! " 
 
 Brother Martin gazed upon her. A pause followed. Egino 
 reached out his hand to clasp that of Corradina ; as if absent mind- 
 edly she indulged him, and placed her right hand in his. Her glance 
 remained fixed, directed into the distance. 
 
 The monk supported his brow upon his hand, and said, looking at 
 the floor : 
 
 "And then? Tell me all." 
 
 " Count Egino may relate to you further how he forced his way to 
 me ; how he then fell into the prison of the Dominicans ; how I then 
 found him sicker and weaker than I had supposed. Livio made it 
 possible for me to get into his dungeon. I was aware that some kind 
 of a trick, a something kept back, was lurking behind his goodness 
 and still I consented. If I should refuse, upon Livio's suggestion, 
 to go in and lead Egino out of the cloister, there was no other rescue 
 to be hoped for him who, for my sake, had fallen into this distress. 
 When I had led him out, it was always to be hoped that, through 
 prudence and courage, we would succeed in making vain the artifice, 
 in escaping the snare, in attaining to liberty. So I undertook it. I 
 found my way, as it had been described to me, into Egino's cell." 
 
 " Like an angel of light, you came in the night of despair," ex- 
 claimed Egino ; " and if I should die for you ten times, I should not 
 have repaid you the happiness of the moment in which my confused 
 senses became composed, began to believe that it was you, you." 
 
 She withdrew from him her hand, and placing it upon his arm, as 
 if again quieting him, she continued :
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 317 
 
 " I led him out. We came into the Chapel of the Immured. What 
 happened there the German maiden has already related to you." 
 
 Brother Martin nodded gently with his head. 
 
 " I know what happened there," he said. 
 
 " So I may end here. When we, following the man who was carry- 
 ing the wounded girl, found ourselves outside in the dark, narrow 
 streets, we said to ourselves that no one would pursue them, of whom 
 no one knew, but would only pursue, spy out, and seek us ; that we 
 should therefore owe it to them to separate our lot from theirs, so that 
 they might not, at least, become endangered ; that we must, at any cost, 
 seek to get outside of the gates, now while they were not yet guarded. 
 So we separated ourselves from them, and, fortunately, without being 
 detained, passed through the gate to Signer Callisto's house, who 
 has continuously shown to me good will and kindness, and for whose 
 true friendship Count Egino stood security. We have not been dis- 
 appointed in the noble man. And so you find us here." 
 
 " And now," Corradina said, concluding her narrative, " now, 
 Brother Martin, ponder in your heart whether what you have heard 
 is a story of sin and transgression, or a human destiny, appointed by 
 God's paternal hand, and guided upon the road to the goal whither 
 he willed to lead me. Tell us to-morrow, for it has grown late ; the 
 sun has set, and the night must find you in your cloister." 
 
 Brother Martin arose. 
 
 "You are right, countess," he said gently. " I would also not be 
 in a condition to say to you a word about it. My soul is filled with 
 all that these days have brought to me, as if a mountain load lay upon 
 me. Let me go. I feel as if I had been snatched into a roaring 
 whirlpool. I must get my breath before I can speak." 
 
 He reached his hand to both of them, and passed, with difficult 
 pace, through the room and ante-chamber to leave the villa.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A MONOLOGUE OF THE MONK. 
 
 HEN Brother Martin had again reached the portal of his 
 cloister, and had found admittance, he slipped quietly and 
 noiselessly into his cell. He wished to be heard by 
 no one, to be seen by no one ; he wished to meet no idle 
 questions to which he must give answer. He locked the door of his 
 cell and threw himself into the chair at his window. 
 
 The full, round face of the moon was looking in. 
 
 Folding his hands, Luther breathed deeply several times ; then he 
 rested his temple upon his hand, and looking up at the moon he 
 murmured : 
 
 " Upon what a world does this round disc, there, pour its soft, 
 peaceful light ! O my God, upon what a world ! . As the pious 
 mother, earnestly and with astonishment, looks into the mildly 
 heated countenance of her child, so this face looks in upon this 
 world ! 
 
 " What men ! They have the high, mild light of heaven, the 
 glittering stars there which flicker in eternally twinkling motion, 
 as if they would speak to men in anxious excitement, telling them 
 to be good ; and they have the soul-light beaming forth from the 
 pure doctrine of the gospel ! And still they live in darkness, and 
 act like robbers and murderers. 
 
 " Into the pure, gushing fountain of the teaching of the Saviour, 
 they have thrown the dead carcass of their institutions, and no pure 
 mouth may any more drink from this water. For the sake of the 
 faith, they imprison one another, kill, and burn. The Devil has 
 passed by a tiger's den and has hurled to them their faith, that the 
 beasts may have something about which to fight and tear each 
 other's flesh. In this wild struggle they have beaten to death the 
 living Christ, and dark birds flutter about his corpse ; the raven- 
 nature loves the odor of a corpse ! 
 
 3'S
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 319 
 
 "O Lord, O Almighty God, who art able to bring forth thy light- 
 nings ! No, no ; thy thunders have rolled enough, and they have 
 taken no alarm ! O thou who couldst tear thy sun from the vault of 
 heaven and hurl this flaming, primitive doctrine under them, and 
 couldst cry to them, There, you have light, and now see, you 
 blind ! " 
 
 Exhausted, Martin sank down. Never had come out before his 
 eyes with such affecting force the gaping contrast between the 
 world of that time as it was, and the world as, according to the 
 "doctrine," it should be; between the ruthless contempt for the 
 inner purport of the doctrine, the insolent unconcern about its moral 
 precepts, and the violent cruelty with which they defended its outer 
 authority, its forms, the scaffolding of its hierarchy. 
 
 He saw standing before him the form of this Pope who had shown 
 him out of the door, and forbidden to him and to mankind the right 
 of thinking. And near the Pope stood Padre Geronimo, the execu- 
 tioner for thoughts ; and far behind them was as if a broad plain, 
 upon which the sins and passions of mankind, who were not allowed 
 to think, were flying about in a wild chaos. 
 
 The evil, bitter doubt, which had already once barked at him so 
 poisonously, came back more painfully, more goadingly. It was a 
 real misery that it brought over the poor monk so disturbed within. 
 He had doubted the principle of the whole system, the fact of the 
 original sinfulness of human nature. Now there seized upon him a 
 doubt of the power of the entire theology, of its ability to lead men 
 in general to goodness and purity. In his agitation and mutiny he 
 could have thrust this theology, this scholasticism, from him with a 
 stroke of the foot ; he could have seized it, shaken it, and would 
 have liked to thunder at it these words : 
 
 "Now give me an account of your foster-child, humanity; to what 
 have you brought it ? Are not you, you yourself the serpent of 
 which you are eternally talking, which made humanity sinful and 
 wretched ? the serpent which the Lord condemned to creep upon its 
 belly and to eat dust ? Yes, you creep upon the belly ; you live upon 
 the belly ; and instead of manna you eat dust, you black adder ! 
 
 "Poor, pitiable human race! You 'race of kings and priests,' 
 to which the Lord would exalt you, how have you been trodden 
 under foot ! If the poor man should go forth out of his hut seeking 
 food, and should kill a wild animal of the field, the master of the soil 
 comes and says, 'Away; the game is mine!' If he should catch
 
 320 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 a fish out of the waters, another says to him, ' Away ; the waters are 
 mine ! ' If he would fetch a piece of wood out of the forest to warm 
 himself, there would come yet another to say, 'Away; for to me 
 belongs the forest ! ' If he finds under the floor of his hut a vein of 
 precious metal, that might aid him, the lord of the soil is again there, 
 and gives the order, ' Don't disturb it ; it is mine. Mine is the 
 soil upon which you stand ; mine the treasure under your feet ; mine 
 the bird flying through the air over your head.' And then if 
 the poor man, with his need and his misery, would flee for refuge to 
 his Christ, then comes Frau Theology, the serpent, then comes 
 the church, and says : ' The house of Christ is mine ; mine are 
 the mansions in the house of the Father; mine are all the favors 
 of the Lord ; and if you want any of them, then buy them from 
 me ! You have nothing upon the earth ; it must be, then, that 
 you buy it from your landlord. You have nothing in heaven ; it must 
 be, then, that you buy it from me ! I have the keys to heaven. 
 You cannot come in unless you give much gold for masses, offerings, 
 indulgences, and all my goods ! ' 
 
 "And, finally, the soul of the poor man erects itself against 
 this order of the world, and he begins to ask himself, in his thoughts, 
 about all this compulsory right. Then Frau Theology calls out to 
 him: 'Restrain yourself; your brains are mine, as your fields are 
 those of your landlord, your forests those of your prince ! If you 
 think with your brain, draw conclusions with your intellect, you 
 trespass upon my territory; and as the landlord puts you in 
 irons for the wild stag you poach, so will I let you be burned if you 
 think ! ' Merciful God ! the lot of man has become dreadful ; not, in- 
 deed, for them, for these priests who blaspheme in saying masses, 
 for these great ones doing what they wish, for these cardinals 
 like Rafael they live in joy and pleasure, and yet know how to get 
 into heaven ! Heaven is for them a great, ever-enduring feast. In 
 order to be let in they need only to have pressed a bit of gold 
 into the hand of Peter, the gatekeeper. To them heaven is a great 
 masked party, a mumming occasion ; in order to be admitted, one 
 needs only come in a mask : one draws on a priest's robe, or has him- 
 self buried in a monk's habit then Peter lets him in." 
 
 Brother Martin threw his hands over his face in perfect despair ; 
 he groaned aloud, as if in the deepest, most crushing pain. It was to 
 him as if the earth were giving way under him. 
 
 "It is a great and difficult task," he began again, after a long
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 321 
 
 pause, "to find the truth. But the merciful God will assist me if I 
 seek it, seek, and keep on seeking to the end of my life ! This, 
 however, dawned clearly upon my soul to-day : with this creed can 
 mankind not become noble, and good, and happy. And in regard 
 to this creed, Lord Tommaso Inghirami was right when he said, 
 ' Religion has no influence upon the morals, and the character, 
 and actions of men.' Was not that what he maintained in Master 
 Santi's house? He was right, this belief cannot have it; this 
 belief that his own innocent child must, by his death, have 
 conciliated a wrathful, angry God in order to open the gate of 
 heaven to mankind, and then give its doors to the care of the 
 church, that she might open them to those who come with 'good 
 works.' No, no; only the truth that Christ has come to us in 
 the impulse of his divine love to make us good and noble 
 through teaching and exhortation, and that we human beings 
 have beaten him to death as a reward ; that we must now conciliate 
 him through love and a pure course of life according to his 
 doctrine, only that can save. Not the mere theology of the 
 .atoning death of Christ, but the teaching of the atoning life of 
 man ! " 
 
 With such thoughts the German monk walked up and down in his 
 cell. He did not perceive how the night sank deeper and deeper ; 
 he did not hear, as, now far, now near, now in this, now in that clois- 
 ter, the bells were rung for matins and nightly prayers. At length 
 weariness compelled him to throw himself upon his hard bed ; a fever- 
 ish half-slumber, out of which he was startled from time to time, led 
 past him dreamy visions. He saw the old man with the donkey, 
 who had threatened him with the perniciosa ; he sat now in the 
 forest, and had taken upon his lap the bloody head of a boy, a 
 head with dark eye-sockets dreadful to behold. Over the forest 
 arose a lofty, rich palace, and therein stretched out broad, stately 
 rooms, in one of which stood the thorn-crowned Christ of the 
 picture upon which Irmgard had looked, the entire form leaning 
 upon the cross. This Christ followed, with painful glances and 
 gentle turnings of the head, a weeping maiden who was hastening 
 through the room ; but the maiden did not see him, and hurried past.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE POPE GOES TO SLEEP. 
 
 Motto : Eternal God, if thou didst not watch, how bad it would be for 
 the world which we rule, I, a wretched hunter, and that 
 drunken, wicked Julitis ! - EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN I. 
 
 ONG before the hour in which these images, like an Alp r 
 lay upon the breast of Brother Martin, had Pope Julius 
 left the circle of those who surrounded him in the last 
 evening hour, and with whom, after the troubles of the 
 day, he had passed the time, till going to sleep, in gay conversation. 
 Julius II., as well as no theologian, was also no learned man. Some 
 one has said of him, that as he was once going out to war, he threw 
 down from the Tiber bridge the keys of Peter into the river, that 
 he might draw his polished sword. When Michael Angelo had fin- 
 ished his statue for the fagade of San Petronio, in Bologna, Julius 
 was angry that a book had been placed in his hand, and cried out, 
 "I am no scholar; give me a sword in my hand ! " But he liked to 
 see around him people of culture and learning, and in those hours of 
 recreation he often won the admiration of these men for his knowl- 
 edge of the world, his knowledge of political relations, and his pene- 
 tration in judging of them. At these times, in spite of his rough 
 nature, his open honesty and frank manner of expression could give 
 to him something amiable ; a trait which stands forth more vividly 
 when one compares him with his predecessors. 
 
 To-day, when he left his own attendants and betook himself to his 
 bedroom, his step was tottering, and the head of the old man sank 
 heavily forward. He had in the evening drunken the strong red 
 Gradoli ; at last he had felt it was time for him to betake himself 
 to rest. 
 
 "Gennaro," he said, breathing heavily and leaning upon his body- 
 servant, who was undressing him, "you must read to me, when I lie 
 
 3"
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 323 
 
 down, out of the book, there, the night prayer; I fear I could no 
 longer bring the words together. Were you not down in the city 
 to-day?" 
 
 "Yes, Holy Father." 
 
 "And what are they talking about in the city of the death of 
 Savelli ? " 
 
 " Of the death of Savelli, and also of a feast in the Colonna Palace 
 in the honor of Duke Alfonso." 
 
 "So, so they were celebrating a feast there Alfonso von 
 Ferrara was having a feast ! " murmured the Pope. 
 
 And then after a pause he added : 
 
 " He has found that the supreme pontifex is a good-natured old 
 man, with whom he lets himself live ! Now let them rejoice and 
 drink ! In the Colonna Palace let them rejoice ! The rejoicing will 
 be past, Gennaro, I think even to-morrow, to-morrow morning. Lay 
 the cushion upon my feet, and push the light out of my eyes ; the 
 light makes them ache ! " 
 
 "What was Your Holiness going to say?" asked Gennaro, 
 who knew that at this hour he might venture any question. 
 
 "What was I going to say? That I will take away from him his 
 entire dukedom of Ferrara. That is what I will say, Gennaro. He 
 shall hand it over to me entire, entire ; he shall not keep back a rod 
 of its tillable land. That is what I would say. To-morrow the car- 
 dinals will say it to him to this Este ! " 
 
 " And will he let it please him ? He will ride home and begin 
 war again ! " 
 
 " Ride home ? One will teach him that ! " 
 
 "But, Holy Father, you have just granted him peace and par- 
 doned him upon the condition that he humble himself, and acknow- 
 ledge himself your vassal. He has had your promise, and it is 
 wrong " 
 
 "Wrong wrong," answered Julius, with a thick tongue. "You 
 blockhead, will you restrain me from calling it right ? Is it not 
 right if I make it right ? Has another to decide what is right or 
 wrong, or have I ? Am I the Pope, or are you, Gennaro ? Gennaro, 
 if you were the Pope, would you not wish Ferrara ? Go and read 
 out of the book the night prayer ; we dare not neglect the night 
 prayer. What would Father Anselmo say ? I can bind and loose, 
 Gennaro; I will loose Ferrara from this Este loose from this 
 Este the Alfonso I will have bound seized and bound "
 
 324 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 The voice of the Pope went off into an unintelligible murmur. He 
 had long before shut his eyes. He moved his lips still a few times, 
 and then went to sleep. 
 
 Gennaro slipped out of the room on tiptoe.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CALLISTO'S NEWS. 
 
 IT was on the following morning. Callisto had been led 
 into the city by his business and by the desire to obtain 
 information as to what they were saying down there in 
 regard to the occurrences in the house of Savelli, also as to 
 what else had happened. Donna Ottavia was sitting on the couch 
 which, yesterday, Egino was still occupying. He himself, much 
 stronger after a night of profound and healthful sleep, and almost 
 restored to the feeling of perfect health, sat in an armchair at the 
 open window, into which streamed a warm, odor-impregnated, ever 
 salubrious breeze. His wound was in the act of healing over ; what 
 had kept him weak and feeble was only the fearful mental pain, 
 the tormenting anxiety, about Irmgard, about Corradina's fate, the 
 frightful images which had haunted him in the prison. The events 
 of the night which had brought to him freedom, must, then, have 
 agitated him anew most violently. Now, however, had his elastic, 
 youthful strength begun again to permeate his being ; and, breath- 
 ing deep, he inhaled the mild air with the perfect delight of return- 
 ing strength, though his breast could still heave so little free from 
 the pressure of care. There was, on the contrary, sufficient ground 
 for finding a condition such as his rather full of despair. The threat- 
 ening danger swaying over him and over Corradina ; the condition 
 of Irmgard, upon which he dwelt with so much uneasiness ; the 
 danger into which he had brought his noble entertainers, and in 
 which he was still keeping them ; the certainty that he had 
 thoroughly marred his brother's lawsuit, for the sake of which he 
 had come hither ; and, more than all, the futifre of Corradina, whom 
 no one but just he had severed so violently from her relations, to 
 lead her into a future lying before him like a chaotic dream, all 
 this was effective enough to cause him to say to Donna Ottavia, with 
 painful emotion : -
 
 326 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " I feel myself strong enough in order to-day, as soon as night 
 has come, to thank you for your noble hospitality, and to free you 
 from my dangerous presence in your house. Signor Callisto will, 
 of course, lend to me the means for the journey, for which he can 
 repay himself out of my possessions, through my servant, so soon as 
 there would no longer be any danger to him in seeking out my 
 servant in my lodgings hi the city. Believe me, I also now know 
 enough of Rome to leave it without reluctance. I will go filled with 
 your theory that there are two kinds of poesy, or, better even, three, 
 and three kinds of flames which can blaze up in the human soul." 
 
 " Three flames, and all at once ? " remarked Donna Ottavia, smil- 
 ing. " I think one would be enough for one heart." 
 
 " I mean not all at once, but, as you also meant it then, fairly in 
 succession, and as one becomes more mature : the first, for the great 
 and sublime, for God in the phenomena ; the second for truth and 
 the eternal ideas, whose daughters the phenomena are, for God in' 
 the thoughts ; finally, the third, for love and for goodness and for 
 the human being, for God in the soul " 
 
 "And have I taught to you this new kind of a trinity, Conte 
 Gino ? " said Donna Ottavia, smilingly interrupting him. 
 
 " About that ! Did you not say then that I need only fall in love 
 a little unhappily to find that behind the poesy of Rome, which 
 caused me to break out into such ecstasies in your presence, stands 
 a higher ? " 
 
 " I remember. " 
 
 " Well, now, I have reflected over that. I have had some experi- 
 ences since then." 
 
 " And you have very quickly followed my advice, and fallen in love, 
 Don Gino ! And that," she added, " has made a philosopher of you, 
 a discoverer of a new trinity ? You Germans are a wond'erful 
 people ! " 
 
 " Not so wonderful as you think ; for although we rack our brains 
 a great deal, especially when the Inquisition throws us into her 
 dungeons, we conduct ourselves, at least, not differently from others, 
 and are, perhaps, much more helpless than they. I am very much 
 in need of advice at this moment, Donna Ottavia." 
 
 "Are you? And wherefore, Conte Gino?" asked Donna 
 Ottavia. 
 
 "Are you not yourself aware ? I have made no secret of the deep 
 passion which has filled me for Corradina since the moment in
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 327 
 
 which I saw her for the first time. I need not paint for you the 
 depth of this passion, for you know to what length it has carried me; 
 how it has caused me to defy every danger and consideration. And 
 still I scarcely knew Corradina, knew little of her mind and 
 thoughts, and nothing at all of her past. Now, when she has 
 related it all, .when she has granted to me for whole hours the favor 
 of her sweet presence, my heart, which in the beginning beat boldly 
 for every venture, and considered nothing unattainable, is now filled 
 with the deepest despondency. I feel myself so unfortunately needy, 
 Donna Ottavia ! Her name, her blood, her culture, and her mind 
 would not overawe me, and restrain me from suing for her heart and 
 hand. I am conscious of a pure nature, of a noble will, and of at 
 least enough mind to vouchsafe to us sufficient insight and intellect 
 to be able to act for the happiness of those who depend upon us. 
 And what would I not do, sacrifice, give up, to make such a wife as 
 Corradina happy ! My whole life would I devote to this one 
 thought ! " 
 
 "And yet you dare not now woo her, Con,te Gino ?" asked Donna 
 Ottavia, directing her glance thoughtfully, and as if half-abstractedly, 
 upon Egino. 
 
 " It is so," responded Egino. ," I feel myself too poor in the pres- 
 ence of her inner wealth ; I become absorbed in all that she has ex- 
 perienced, I live it over anew with her ; I follow the thoughts, the 
 feelings with which her soul is filled, her mind expanded, and how it 
 must place her with her inner world toward the men and the world 
 outside of her ; and then, despairing, hopeless, I say to myself, 
 What can I be to her ? How can I remove the dark shadows her 
 experiences have thrown over her soul ? What am I, that I could be 
 the price to purchase her back to happiness ? Can I walk before 
 her and say, Throw into* one scale all the bitterness, the hardness, 
 the dreadfulness of your life, throw me into the other, and I will 
 outweigh it, and make you happy ? " 
 
 If Count Egino had secretly entertained the hope that Donna 
 Ottavia would contradict him, and pronounce his despair the 
 result of groundless diffidence, he had erred, for she thoughtfully 
 answered : 
 
 "The mind of the countess must have become gloomy, through 
 what she has experienced ; in that you are right, Count Egino. 
 Bitterness must have sunk to the bottom of her heart : this must 
 have closed it against softer feelings ; this must have taught her to
 
 328 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 hate all men ; she must have come to the conclusion never to belong 
 to any man, all that is natural " 
 
 " So natural it would be a wonder if it were otherwise ! " put in 
 Egino. 
 
 "And so," continued Donna Ottavia, "I can only pronounce you 
 right when you despair of wooing her. Of course you are a different 
 man from the kind of men she has learned to know. What you and 
 she have together passed through has of itself brought you nearer to 
 her : besides, you could offer her a destiny that would remove her 
 far from all the circle in which she was so unhappy ; that would take 
 her away into a sure, protecting distance ; that would rescue her 
 from the only remaining escape that of going into a cloister. But, 
 - I will speak to you candidly, as a true friend, Count .Egino, 
 granted these reasons should move her to listen to your wooings and 
 the entreaties of your love, and to give you her hand, would you 
 both become happy, she as well as you ? Would you not then be 
 always asking yourself : Is she satisfied now with being and living 
 in my rough northern land ? Do not our customs repel her ? Does 
 she not ponder in secret whether I am worthy of her having, for my 
 sake, become untrue to her sunny native land, the Ausonian earth, 
 and to her vow of belonging to no man ? Could two persons be 
 happy who are of such entirely different blood, different race, differ- 
 ent nature, and different character, your open and warm German 
 soul, shining so clear and innocent from your eyes, your unembit- 
 tered young Gothic blood, and her earnest, gloomy spirit with all its 
 wounds ? " 
 
 "And still, and still," Egino broke out in perfect despair, "I 
 would not know how to leave her, and my heart would break in two ;: 
 my whole life would be destroyed, my future be a long grief, if I must 
 relinquish the thought of her." 
 
 " Time is man's greatest benefactor, Conte Gino. Do not despair 
 on that account. Time will transform your grief into melancholy, 
 and the melancholy will give place to the satisfaction which you will 
 hereafter feel that you are chained no longer by any kind of bond to- 
 Roman things and relations." 
 
 Count Egino was silent. He stared at the floor ; his face became 
 paler under the pressure with which the words of Donna Ottavia 
 had still more afflicted his soul, losing itself in hopelessness. 
 
 " But she ? " he asked, after a pause, with trembling lips. " What 
 will become of Corradina ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 329- 
 
 "Do not be uneasy about her," replied Donna Ottavia. "She 
 will go into a cloister, and in its protection will easily feel happier 
 than she was in the house of Savelli. The cloister will compel them 
 to deliver up her possessions : cloisters have ways and means of 
 helping those belonging to them to their rights, and they love heir- 
 esses. Her name and her riches will rapidly promote her. She will 
 soon be the principal of such an order and its domains. Believe me, 
 you need not fear for her future ; and if after years you think of her, 
 consoled, represent her to yourself as a commanding abbess, with a 
 crucifix upon her breast and a silver staff ! " 
 
 " She she a nun ! Never will this happen ! What would a 
 nun be without faith ! " exclaimed Egino. 
 
 "What thousands of nuns are to-day out of the noblest races." 
 
 At this instant Callisto entered quickly, and overheated. 
 
 "You must flee, Count Egino, this very night!" he said. "The 
 Savelli people have not yet discovered you, it is true, but I 
 know they have had spies put around my house, while already, day 
 before yesterday, two troops of horse have been sent out after 
 you; one upon the road to Civitavecchia, the other upon the road to 
 the north. They considered it most likely that you had fled in the 
 direction of Viterbo, upon the road to your home. This troop have 
 just now returned without having discovered any trace of you, 
 and likewise the one pursuing you toward the sea ; so they will 
 conclude that you are still here, and will break in upon me ; of that 
 you may be certain." 
 
 " You are right," said Egino, rising, with a constrained tone ; " I 
 must flee flee. And you, Donna Ottavia, say yourself whether I 
 can do it. O my God, I cannot do it ! " he added, with a cry of 
 pain, clasping his hands together and then covering his face with 
 them. 
 
 At this outcry, and this movement of his young friend, Callisto 
 looked at his wife in astonishment. Donna Ottavia laid her hand 
 upon Egino's shoulder, and said : 
 
 " Courage, courage, Count Egino ; what a man has found out to 
 be the right thing, he must also have the strength to put into ex- 
 ecution." 
 
 " I will arrange everything for your flight," added Callisto. " For 
 your suit, leave me your power of attorney, and rely upon me to 
 bring out of it whatever is to be brought out of it. As soon as it is 
 night, my horse shall be saddled and ready for you. Donna Ottavia
 
 330 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 will take care that there is no lack of clothing, and I that there is 
 no lack of money in the knapsack." 
 
 " I thank you a thousand times, Callisto, for all your kindness ; I 
 thank you from the profoundest depths of my heart ; but " 
 
 "You dare not," continued the lawyer, "take the direct way over 
 the Ponte Molle ; that bridge, as well as the one in front of Porta 
 Salara, is guarded. We must (for I will myself be your guide) go 
 through Porta Sant Agnese to Ponte Mammolo, in order to pass 
 over the Anio ; and then down it to the left, to set you over the 
 Tiber by ferry." 
 
 "But, my God ! can I do it, can I do it then? " exclaimed Egino, 
 as if crushed. " Is it possible that I tear myself away, never to 
 return, also without one hope ever to find out what has become of 
 Corradina ; that never again can a greeting or a word from her reach 
 me ; with the feeling that I am dead for her, that she, and with 
 her the world, is dead for me ! " 
 
 Callisto looked at him in surprise, and then again, questioningly, at 
 Donna Ottavia. 
 
 " Dira necessitous!" he said then, in a low tone. "In that, you 
 will know how to submit. The proud Hohenstaufen blood will not 
 become your wife, and cannot, Count Egino. You cannot plant a 
 palm among your oaks and pines. If you love her you could not 
 wish that ; if you should ask it of her she would find out from that 
 that you are an egotistic man, no better than all the rest ! " 
 
 Egino was yet too much enfeebled by his illness, too excitable, to 
 be able to maintain his self-control; he threw himself upon a chair, 
 and pressing his hands before his face he broke into a flood of tears. 
 
 Donna Ottavia left the room and ascended to Corradina's chamber 
 upstairs, while Signer Callisto resorted to everything possible in 
 talking, to alleviate the grief of his young friend. After awhile 
 Donna Ottavia came back. 
 
 "The countess," she whispered, "was very much startled at the 
 news I just now brought her. She insists that Count Egino must 
 flee- 
 
 " She sends me away she also sends me away!" exclaimed 
 Egino, who had heard the last words. "Then I will go I will go. 
 But I beg you let me not see her again ; a leave-taking would break 
 my heart. Only to Irmgard will I go. From her will I take leave. 
 I will tell her "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 331 
 
 " But I beg you, Count Egino, not to think of risking yourself 
 again in the city ! " broke in Callisto. 
 
 " What risk do I take ? " said Egino, cutting short his speech. 
 " For a duty, my life. That is something great, when my life has 
 become so worthless and miserable." 
 
 " And yet you shall not," exclaimed Callisto, angrily aroused. 
 " My God ! you dare not " 
 
 Donna Ottavia laid her hand upon his shoulder. 
 
 "Be quiet, Callisto; he will not do it," she said. ''The Countess 
 Corradina asked after the German monk ; we are to bid him come. 
 She truly thinks he will best know how to console our friend. He 
 will also know how to restrain Count Egino from executing such a 
 foolhardy resolution." 
 
 "And I tell you," cried Egino, "that even he will assist me, and 
 recognize the fact that I cannot go without having pressed the hand 
 of the poor, brave girl who has done so great a thing for me." 
 
 At this moment the door of the room opened, and Corradina came 
 in. Her face, with its finely chiseled features, which usually showed 
 an unchangeable, faintly perceptible tinge of color, was overspread 
 with a delicate flush, as if from inner agitation. Ottavia had never 
 seen upon her countenance this expression of spiritual beauty. 
 Before Egino stood again quite that daughter of the Hohenstaufens 
 before whom he knelt when he had held that first interview with 
 her, when she so proudly, and yet with so much emotion, had bowed 
 her brow to his. 
 
 She threw a glance upon Egino, and then turned to Donna 
 Ottavia. 
 
 "Did you have the goodness to send for Fra Martino?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " I am going to have him bidden to come," said Donna Ottavia, 
 and she left the room. 
 
 Callisto exclaimed : 
 
 " You come at the right moment to help us, Countess. You must 
 forbid our friend, there, to commit a boundless folly ; he will surely 
 heed your reasonable remonstrances " 
 
 "I will not spare them," broke in Corradina. "Will you leave me 
 alone with Count Egino, Signor Callisto ? " 
 
 The lawyer bowed and went out. 
 
 "Count Egino," she now said, approaching him and extending to 
 him her hand, "Donna Ottavia tells me that the moment has come
 
 332 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 when you must flee, the moment of separation for us, as she says. 
 So I must talk to you and give expression to that which I have 
 avoided, in order not to excite you when convalescing, and thus to 
 prevent your recovery." 
 
 "Must you give expression to it ? " rejoined Egino, with a bitter 
 tone, and turning himself away. " Is it then necessary that it 
 should be spoken, that word of final separation, of blank-eyed hope- 
 lessness ? Is it necessary that you lead me into this temptation to 
 break out into a last storm of passion, and vainly throw myself at 
 your feet to pour out my heart to you " 
 
 "Count Egino," she interposed, "you know not what you say! 
 I demand it of you to remain quiet, to hear calmly what I have to 
 say to you. Seat yourself there and hear the reasonable remon- 
 strances which, as Signer Callisto says, I have to make to you. I 
 beg of you not to show me in this hour that you are no better than 
 the men whom I hate, who can do nothing but torment and perse- 
 cute us with their horrible passion. Show to me that in you rolls a 
 different blood, a true warm blood; not one which now, wildly heated, 
 seethes and rages, now turns to ice." 
 
 Count Egino had seated himself upon the couch ; Corradina had 
 seized his right hand and stood before him while she spoke 
 further : 
 
 " See, Count Egino, I do not love you not with the feeling I 
 have been obliged to hear called love by men, and before which I 
 would dread myself, if I should feel myself seized by its consuming 
 fire, its sense-destroying madness 
 
 "You are very kind to tell me ! " stammered Egino, with pale lips. 
 
 " I owe it to you," she responded. I owe it to you to place clearly 
 before you my feeling for you. I see in you a friend, a brother. I 
 hear your voice gladly; I rejoice in your presence; my whole soul 
 clings to you ; and I feel that you would be able to make me better 
 than I am. Your open, kind, cheerful nature, which is like the cup 
 of a white flower, upon which yet lies the dawn of life with a rosy 
 shimmer and brightness I feel that this nature could even power- 
 fully influence mine, and extinguish my bitterness and the gloomy 
 temper which is in me. With this you must now be content ; I can- 
 not grant you more ; you dare not ask for more." 
 
 "Of course; I must be satisfied with it !" whispered Egino, cast 
 clown and bitter. 
 
 " And can you not do that ? Is it not enough for your happiness ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 333 
 
 " No, no, and again no ! " added Egino, vehemently, aloud. " By 
 the thought, by the hope of winning your heart, your love, I have 
 lived all this time." 
 
 "Restrain yourself, restrain yourself," exclaimed Corradina ; "no 
 storm, no passion in this hour ! You must reconcile yourself to that, 
 Egino, to speak to me only with calm reason ; and if you " 
 
 " But I cannot do it now ; this quiet renunciation of my happiness, 
 of my life, of my earthly future, which will now become a place of 
 torment to me " 
 
 " You are a fool, like all the men," said Corradina, indignantly 
 cutting short his speech. " I can grant you no greater happiness ! " 
 she added, almost angrily. " And ask yourself what happiness you 
 will afford me, if you are so foolish as to ask of me more than I can 
 bestow, at least, more than I can bestow now. A woman wishes to 
 have the consciousness that she makes the man happy to whom she 
 gives herself as his own. Therein consists her happiness, only, 
 exclusively therein. So, at least, I feel. And if I now tell you that 
 I will become your wife, to go with you to your home 
 
 "You my wife?" cried Egino, hastily rising and seizing both 
 her hands. "Yes, will you, then ? You will become my wife ? " 
 
 She looked at him with dilated eyes, in which Egino could read 
 only surpise. 
 
 " Have you, then, doubted that ? " she said. " That is strange, 
 Count Egino. I think fate has united us more firmly than a priest's 
 blessing can do ! There are things which a noble woman can do 
 only for her husband. To flee out of her house with a man ; to go up 
 and down with him through the night alone ; to sit by the couch of a 
 man nursing him, and to remain with him days at a time, I can do 
 this only when I belong to this man, and am his wife for time and 
 eternity ! " 
 
 " Corradina ! " faltered Egino. 
 
 " And will you now still complain about your happiness ? Well, 
 then, if I cannot grant to you the happiness which lies in the con- 
 fession of a passion for you such as you desire, I can yet afford to 
 you that which another confession must produce ; that is, that I 
 shall always see in you my rescuer, the man who has wiped out 
 relations unendurable to me, and who leads me into a better land, for 
 which I have learned to long as after the land of liberty, as after the 
 land of my nativity, the land of my fathers and my own land." 
 
 "Hold, Corradina," exclaimed Egino, while he knelt down before
 
 334 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 her and pressed her hands upon his glowing face. " Oh ! how little 
 have I understood you ! You give me so much joy that it might 
 kill me ! " 
 
 "Compose yourself, Egino," she said, withdrawing from him one of 
 her hands and laying it upon his arm ; " we have concluded that this 
 hour should be devoted to reasonable deliberations. We need all 
 our reason to escape the danger surrounding us. Let us consider 
 our flight. I have had Brother Martin bidden to come. Your 
 friend shall bless our betrothal in the presence of Signor Callisto, 
 who, as a well-known legal personage, will give testimony that my 
 marriage with Luca Savelli was an unreal appearance and a null 
 action. Then, as your wedded bride, I can flee with you. If 
 Callisto cannot provide you with means for the journey, I can help 
 out ; before I went with Livio Savelli to liberate you, I supplied my- 
 self with gold. When we shall have Rome and the Tiber behind 
 us, we will buy either mules or horses." 
 
 They were interrupted, for already Brother Martin stepped into 
 the room.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 4 THE LAST DROP. 
 
 ROTHER MARTIN, who, conducted by Callisto, now 
 came in, was in the highest state of excitement. He 
 threw himself upon a chair, wiped his brow, and, looking 
 at Egino and Corradina, said : 
 
 " You will up and away, Count Egino ? You are obliged to do it, 
 as Callisto says ? Now may God guide your flight ! " 
 
 " I will not be alone in it, Brother Martin," replied Egino, in his 
 joy shaking both of Martin's hands. " See, here is my betrothed ; 
 she will accompany me. You are first to bless our vows. Callisto 
 will tell you that you may do it." 
 
 " Oho ! '.' exclaimed Brother Martin, " bless your vows ? O ? I am 
 to bless to-day ? Well, then, let it be so ; I will bless, though, like 
 Balaam, I came hither to curse yes, to curse although I am a 
 priest, and a servant of blessing and peace. My heart would press 
 it from me if I did not hurl a bold anathema against the whole 
 Babel and the beast which sits upon its seven hills ! " 
 
 "And what has happened to you what has put you in such a 
 passion, Brother Martin ? " 
 
 "I will tell you what has thrown me into such a passion, Count 
 Egino ! Rome throws me into a passion ! This wicked Rome, 
 which has murdered our Christian life, and wishes to convert the 
 free creatures of God to stupid praying-mills, such as they have in 
 Thibet or in Mantchooria, as Marco Polo, or is it Martin Behaim 
 who describes them ! These inquisitors in scarlet cardinal robes, 
 for which red is the proper color, for only take the garment and 
 wring it, and there drops out the blood of a witness of the truth ! 
 This Pope puts me into a passion ; for he is not an apostle of 
 love, a guardian of the truth, but a false robber." 
 
 " What has our Holy Father done, that you fly out into such a 
 passion against him?" said Callisto, smiling, but surprised at the 
 
 335
 
 336 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 passionate expressions of the German monk, whose speech he rather 
 guessed at than understood. 
 
 " Listen ! " replied Luther. " You may like to know that I have 
 become sated and disgusted with the life here. I had formed my 
 resolution. The Devil had begun with me such a disputation in my 
 heart, that he had made me afraid of myself. And then I said to 
 myself : Flee from here, you poor shote of a Martin, while it is yet 
 time, and before you have yet suffered harm to your soul. If they 
 have killed Christ in the world, and if they will bring it about that 
 the churches stand empty, the altars deserted ; that the sound of 
 bells die out, and hearts apostatize from the faith, do not suffer it 
 that they extinguish the flames upon the altar of your heart ; that 
 they make dumb the bells resounding and chiming in your soul. 
 You hold fast to your God, to your Christ, and to the faith in his 
 Word. Go from hence before doubt becomes powerful in you, and the 
 Devil obtains sway over you, and moves in you as in a swine of the 
 Gergesene herd. Hasten from hence ; shake the dust of Rome from 
 your feet, and take in your hand the pilgrim-staff with which you 
 came hither ! Thus I spoke to myself. And so I went with it to 
 my prior, that I might hand over to him my power of attorney in- 
 trusted to me by our congregation in Saxony you know, on 
 account of the process against you, Count von Ortenburg, at the 
 Rota here. The prior is also willing to take it upon himself immedi- 
 ately; but he warned me first to go to Father Anselmo, and to "take 
 my leave of him. Of course, Father Anselmo is a powerful man, and 
 he stands high in our order, and has been kind and of the best dispo- 
 sition toward me, as you yourself, indeed, saw and know, Count 
 Egino. So I must walk to the Vatican once more ! I went, and 
 went with heavy step, as if something held back my foot which was 
 again treading this path. And when I arrived up there, Father 
 Anselmo received me kindly and listened to what I had to say ; but 
 his countenance was gloomy, and he only half heard what I said, and 
 at last he replied : 
 
 " ' The Holy Father did treat you rather roughly not long since, 
 Brother Martin, but you brought it upon yourself, because you pre- 
 sented to him metaphysical things which he does not like, and then 
 there still lay upon his mind this transaction with the Duke of 
 Ferrara, which, I fear, will still take an evil turn for the Holy Chair 
 and our poor Italy ' 
 
 " ' The transaction with the Duke of Ferrara ? ' I asked thereupon.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 337 
 
 ' I hear, worthy Father, that this transaction was disposed of in the 
 most beautiful peace ; that the Holy Father promised to Fabricio 
 Colonna that the duke should have peace, and the ban should be 
 removed from him, in case he would come and beg for pardon 
 and acknowledge the supremacy of the church over Ferrara. Since, 
 now, all that has happened " 
 
 "'That has happened,' remarked Father Anselmo; 'but do you 
 know of nothing else? The Holy Father cannot be satisfied 
 with such a mild settlement of the long strife; he has had it 
 disclosed to Alfonso von Ferrara that he must make over to the 
 church his dukedom of Ferrara. The duke has angrily refused ; the 
 Holy Father, however, will not let him withdraw until he has 
 submitted. The Colonna Palace, where the duke is staying, is 
 watched by armed men ; all the gates will be guarded by a 
 strong force; the duke will not be freed till he obeys. But then 
 what will happen ? The King of France is his old ally. Will he 
 not find in this a call of honor to assist Alfonso ? The Holy Father 
 may become as angry as he will, I insist upon it we shall again have 
 the French in Italy before two or three months go by ! ' 
 
 " Thus spoke Father Anselmo with gloomy, anxious mien ; and 
 I, I stared the man in the face as if the lightning had struck 
 before me. 
 
 "'By all the holy helpers in need,' I cried, 'that is a nefa- 
 rious deed. A word is a word and a man is a man, and even 
 Pope Julius ' 
 
 " Father Anselmo, however, hastily cut short my speech. I 
 also saw that my words would be lost upon him There lay in his 
 thoughts only the King of France and his gigantic subjects and 
 his Swiss regiments, and how the Republic of Venice will stand 
 in the matter ; not a thought of truth, of faith, and of one's word ; all 
 that did not oppress his conscience. And that man is the Holy 
 Father's father confessor ! And so I left. Now, however, I pray 
 you, Count Egino, is this to be endured ? Has he not acted as 
 a robber and a scoundrel? With friendly promise and a safe 
 conduct has the duke been enticed hither, and now they will 
 plunder him, and strip him to the shirt in this Italian fox-hole, 
 this Castle Malepartus ! And he claims to be the father of 
 Christendom, the guardian of its doctrine ? Is it not enough 
 that they have given to us a faith of dead works instead of the living 
 faith of the heart ? Now shall the world also receive from them
 
 338 LUTHER IN ROME, 
 
 another right ? Must not the thoughts stand still in your brain 
 according to this right ? Truly, they wish even that ! As at 
 the command of Joshua the sun stood still in heaven, so at the 
 command of the Pope must the thoughts of the world stand 
 still ! Signor Callisto, you, who are a lawyer, what do you do 
 with your brains that such a deed may go into it ? Do you get you 
 another, for that which God has given you does not suit the 
 Holy Father? Get you another ! " 
 
 " I will guard myself against that, Fra Martino," answered Signor 
 Callisto, quietly smiling and looking down upon the excited monk. 
 " My brain is just right for me, for it says to me, If the Holy Father 
 is a secular lord and prince, he must also act as the clever Florentine 
 diplomatic writer, Signor Niccolo Macchiavelli, prescribes for secular 
 princes. One is a consequence of the other, my brain says to me. 
 And then it says, You are wrong, Fra Martino, with your 2eal against 
 the priests, as you find them and a,s they out there with you will be- 
 come not much better. Or are they better ? Then see : man creates 
 his God after his own image, the savage his fetish, the Hebrew his 
 choleric Jehovah, and the Greek his Jupiter ; and so he creates also 
 for himself his priests suited to the image of his God. The people 
 will that they be just so, and always whatever they do, they will not 
 go so far as to seem unworthy of the people's God. Our illustrious 
 pontiff, Alexander VI. of most glorious memory, was certainly a robust 
 sinner. But is he not still to be considered a lamb in gentleness and 
 mildness in comparison with the passionate God, the Thunderer 
 from Sinai ? Our courts of heresy have burned many poor human 
 beings, racked them and caused them to pine to death ; but what 
 have you against them, since their God lets his millions burn in his 
 hell throughout eternity ? " 
 
 "Yes; there it lies !" said Brother Martin. "There is truth in 
 what you say. They do not see the true God, who is only love and 
 mercy, but only the angry God of the olden time. To them, Christ, 
 the gentle, mild one, is the first heretic ; therefore have they slain 
 him." 
 
 "Brother Martin," here interposed Egino, whose thoughts in this 
 moment had a direction so different from that of the two men, "will 
 you pronounce our nuptial benediction ? " 
 
 "Certainly I will," responded Brother Martin. "As I said to you, 
 I will bless you as all of those who are of a good will and of a pure 
 heart, but I will curse those who destroy the kingdom of God upon
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 339 
 
 earth. I will go home to my poor German fatherland, and between 
 these clean, honest hands of mine will I place my head, and day and 
 night will I reflect how I shall begin to give testimony to the truth, 
 so that the world may listen to the truth." 
 
 "Brother Martin," here said Corradina, stepping before him and 
 placing her hand upon his shoulder, while she looked him search- 
 ingly in the eye, "you, honest brother, perhaps no longer need so 
 much thought over it ! Perhaps One greater than we all has found 
 and pointed out the way by which the people may be led to the 
 truth ; but to walk upon this way is difficult. Prometheus brought 
 fire from heaven, and for this was chained to the Atlas Mountains. 
 You wish to do more ; you wish to kindle for the world an inextin- 
 guishable sun. Do you believe you could do it unpunished ? " 
 
 "No. But I am not afraid of punishment ; for I know that if they 
 burn me, as they did Girolamo Savonarola, and as Huss of Hussinecz, 
 and as Hieronymus of Prague, and as Arnold of Brescia, and as so 
 many others, they will, of course, cause me suffering, but they could 
 not again darken and extinguish an enkindled sun." 
 
 "Yet," continued Corradina, "if you do not fear the enemies who 
 will stand around you as numerous as the army of Pharaoh against 
 Moses, will you never fear the enemy which will arise in yourself?" 
 
 "What enemy do you mean by that ?" 
 
 "That which wakes up in every man who would walk upon a new 
 way to a new, great, yet-unattained goal doubt of yourself." 
 
 "No," responded Brother Martin, firmly and resolutely. "I can 
 suffer, rack my brains, and let myself be agitated and be deeply un- 
 happy thereby, till I have agreed with myself about a thing. Then, 
 however, I hold fast to it in lasting fidelity. Thus I, originally a 
 lawyer, have come into the order in spite of storm and weather, in 
 spite of father and mother. Dissension has no power over my nature. 
 I know that whatever in me would speak against the light, could be 
 only the voice of darkness." 
 
 " And will not a worse voice be that of the spirit which whispers 
 to you not to lay your hand upon that which is hallowed by time ; 
 not to take away from the faithful soul its pious consolation ; not to 
 destroy the relics, out of which the simple, pious nature creates its 
 trust. Not to spill the holy water, out of which a blessing priestly 
 hand once sprinkled hope and confidence upon the head of your 
 .praying mother? Will all that not hinder and stop you upon your 
 way ? "
 
 340 LUTHER IN ROME, 
 
 "No," said Luther, firmly; "for the time is past for a blessing to 
 burst forth upon humanity by the sprinkling of holy water. We 
 have become men, and only from the truth can come to us pious 
 thoughts, and trust, and hope, and confidence." 
 
 " Well, then," answered Corradina, " I trust to your word and 
 your flashing eyes that you are firm in this avowal ; and so I will 
 place in your hands the heritage of my forefather, the great Frederic. 
 May your hand scatter abroad the seed-thoughts of the most noble 
 emperor ; the world of to-day is a soil prepared to receive this crop. 
 May God prosper it to a beautiful fruitage. You, however, will then 
 be the benefactor of the human race, and with the inheritance of the 
 Staufens avenge the overthrow of the Staufens upon their destroyer, 
 the church ! "
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE BOOK OF FREDERIC II. 
 
 ORRADINA quickly left the chamber, and returned after 
 a few minutes. 
 
 She carried in her hand a little book, which was bound 
 in a thin covering overlaid with plate of gold ; upon the 
 gold was represented in embossed work all kinds of figures of flowers 
 and animals ; a clasp of gold filigree closed it. 
 
 " Here is this most noble legacy," said Corradina, when she handed 
 over the book to the German monk. " I had hidden it in my girdle- 
 pocket, in order not to be separated from it, when I entered upon 
 my course with Livio Savelli ; so I can give it to you." 
 
 Brother Martin took it from her and opened it. It contained a 
 number of closely-written leaves of parchment written in Latin, in 
 German, also in Greek, and in a writing which Martin was not able 
 to read it was Arabic, as Corradina explained. The words of the 
 Apostle, "Do not quench the Spirit," was inscribed upon the inner 
 side of the cover. 
 
 When Brother Martin would have immediately buried himself in 
 the book, Egino, laying his hand upon it, said : 
 
 " Not now, friend Martin ; you still belong to us for awhile. 
 Help and advise us for our flight, which must take place even this 
 very night. And, above all, tell us about how Irmgard is, and how I 
 can see her ; for I cannot go away from here with my breast full of 
 happiness and blessing without having thanked her, without having 
 spoken to her, without having comforted her. That is impossible ! " 
 
 " You will do that in spite of the mortal danger to which you would 
 thereby be exposed ? " asked Brother Martin. 
 
 "Certainly I will. I can even rejoice in the danger to which I 
 thereby expose myself ; for by that, Irmgard can measure how much 
 and with what sacred duty I feel myself under obligation to her." 
 
 341
 
 34 2 LUTHER AY ROME. 
 
 Brother Martin looked at him anxiously, and then turned his glance 
 as if questioningly upon Corradina, while Callisto remarked : 
 
 " Whoever is your friend must detain you by force from this ven- 
 turesome undertaking. You know even now that my house is, per- 
 haps, surrounded by spies and guarded on your account ; that the 
 gates are possessed by soldiers ; exact descriptions of your person 
 will be received by the watchmen. A crowd of people and clients of 
 the Savelli and the Colonna are seeking for your track, not to think 
 of the bailiffs which the monks will have bidden to search for you." 
 
 Egino shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "I must!" he said. "There is something in me which bids me 
 do it. I cannot resist it even if I must go through flames to reach 
 Irmgard. 
 
 "And you, Countess, you are silent, too ? You do not assist 
 me ? Speak; forbid him to do it ! " exclaimed Callisto, stirred up. 
 
 Corradina shook her head. 
 
 "I have nothing to forbid, my lord," she said in a low and sub- 
 dued tone. " I know only one thing, that where a mortal danger 
 threatens him I must be at his side. I will go with him." 
 
 "Corradina, you would do that ! " cried Egino. "That, no, that 
 I cannot surfer ? " 
 
 "And yet you will be obliged to do so, Egino," she answered. 
 " If there is something in you which bids you so powerfully to go, 
 so there is something in me which bids me accompany you upon 
 this course. Our fates are united from now on, for good and for 
 evil days. Do not oppose it ; it would avail nothing ! " 
 
 Signer Callisto turned away indignant and angry. He washed 
 his hands in innocency. Now had this clear-thinking Egino even 
 yet changed himself into a crazy, stubborn-pated German ! Callisto 
 left the room, and left it to them to talk together over the way 
 and manner in which they would pursue their course. It could only 
 be risked in the darkness of the evening, only in some kind 
 of disguise. They could go as a pair of people from the peasantry. 
 Callisto's old gardener had, without doubt, a costume to lend to 
 Egino ; Donna Ottavia's maid, who went clothed in the garb of the 
 women of the Sabine Mountains, had one for Corradina. If Egino 
 had been able to procure the costume of a common horseman, it 
 would have suited him best ; but whence to get it ? One must take 
 that which was most easily procured ; and so Donna Ottavia 
 was bidden to speak with the gardener and the maid. She did
 
 LUTHER IX ROME. 343 
 
 it, and after a short time she herself brought in the costume of the 
 maid for Corradina. 
 
 At the time of the evening meal, between seven and nine o'clock 
 according to our reckoning, the streets of Rome are least frequented 
 and most quiet. It was this time, the hour of approaching night, 
 which Egino and Corradina chose for their purpose. Brother 
 Martin departed ; he took it upon himself to inform Irmgard. 
 He would himself be on the Quirinal in the evening and take leave 
 of the friends, who, directly from there, would make their way 
 to Sant Agnese, and enter into liberty, into the land of their nativity.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 AT THE COUCH OF IRMGARD. 
 
 ROTHER MARTIN on his way home from Callisto's villa, 
 had arrived at his cloister at the hour of midday. He 
 had gone in to partake of his meal with his comrades of 
 the order. During the meal he had informed the prior, in 
 a few words, of his visit to Padre Anselmo, just as he had previously 
 informed him of his audience with Pope JuliusII., in few words, and 
 exactly what he considered sufficient for the comprehension of the 
 honest, but wholly uncultivated man. 
 
 He had always, from the beginning, held himself aloof from these 
 Roman order-brethren, who so thoroughly displeased him. He pre- 
 tended in their presence that he did not understand how to express 
 himself in Italian, and spoke only Latin with them. They did not 
 like this kind of entertainment, and let him alone. 
 
 After the meal he had gone into his cell, there to rest during the 
 hot noon hour, although it was contrary to his German nature to 
 sleep at this hour of the day, as did the' other monks. The eager- 
 ness to bury himself in the little book given to him by Corradina 
 was, besides, too powerful in him for him not to forget everything 
 else for that. With it he threw himself upon the bed in his cell and 
 read it, read till his head was hot, till his pulses throbbed in his 
 temples, so that he forgot the world and time around him. 
 
 Finally, Luther sprang up. He must get air ; he must take breath, 
 and snatch himself from the whirlpool of thoughts which went 
 through his brain, which took deep hold upon his innermost being, 
 and now threw as if a fearful, suffocating burden upon his soul ; now 
 again kindled as if a flaming fire in him, as an impulse to utter words 
 of terrifying import, an impulse to contest, to action, to blood, and 
 to death for the deed. His whole combative nature was kindled to- 
 the highest degree by this book. And had Innocent IV., the de- 
 stroyer of the Hohenstaufens, himself stood before him in this
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 345 
 
 instant, he would have felt himself man enough to force him down, 
 like Saint Michael. 
 
 He had sighed for a word, for a saving word for humanity, which 
 seemed to him enticed by some evil magic from the path of truth 
 into that of error. And now it seemed to him there lay not one, no, 
 a whole stream of words upon his lips and in his heart ; as if he need 
 only walk out into the world, mount the nearest pulpit in every 
 assembly of men, and there cry out what flashed up to him, in order 
 to set free this poor beast of mankind which lay upon the ground 
 and did not move, because some one had made a chalk-mark upon its 
 neck in order to make clear to it that what bound it was only a 
 chalk-mark. Was it then possible that this magic, which was no 
 magic at all, which consisted, not in the enchanting power of the 
 oppressor, but in the blindness of the oppressed, would not be 
 dissolved if he should open the eyes of the blind ? if he should pro- 
 nounce the formula of exorcism, as this book taught it to him ? if he 
 should arouse his slumbering Germany with the thunder-cry of 
 reason, with the full bell-chorus of the soul, with the alarm-peal of 
 patriotism ? 
 
 For it was this which pealed forth for himself out of this book 
 that he held in his hands, out of this precious legacy of the great 
 German emperor ; this triple-note blending into one full chord, now 
 roaring through his soul like the distinct crash of war, mighty and 
 victory announcing, and moving his whole being so much the more 
 powerfully because it had only awakened therein what had so long 
 quietly slumbered there. The cry of intellect, of soul, of patriotism, 
 when hurled crashing as a three-forked lightning among the Ger- 
 man people, must be irresistible ! 
 
 His heart filled to overflowing, his head dizzy with all these 
 thoughts, Luther left the cloister. 
 
 Even if this had not driven him irresistibly out of his narrow cell 
 into the open air, he would not have forgotten what he had 
 promised, to make his way to the Ouirinal, to the sick-bed of Irm- 
 gard. 
 
 He now walked rapidly and energetically thither by the shortest 
 way. 
 
 When he came near the Colonna Palace, he saw in the vestibule 
 of the antiquated structure of the Pope's Pelagius, the Church of the 
 Holy Apostles, which lay close to the palace, a host of armed men, 
 who had their halberds and guns leaning against the walls, and were
 
 346 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 playing morris, or stooped over an antique sarcophagus, were throw- 
 ing dice upon it. They had evidently quartered themselves there. 
 Brother Martin could interpret the purpose of their being in this 
 place ; Father Anselmo had explained it to him : in the Colonna 
 Palace dwelt the Duke of Ferrara; for this reason the exit from 
 the palace was already guarded ! 
 
 Brother Martin walked farther up the hill ; he reached the little 
 garden and house of Frau Giulietta ; the door was locked. When he 
 knocked, the widow herself opened it ; she stuck her head through 
 the crevice of the door, and in her countenance was to be read alarm 
 and excitement. Quieted by the sight of the monk, she opened the 
 door wider, and whispered : 
 
 " Is it you, brother ! You come into a house of mourning ; step 
 in quickly." 
 
 She hastily locked the door again behind him. 
 
 Brother Martin, walking into the kitchen, looked through the open 
 door into Beppo's room, and saw Beppo standing there. He pre- 
 sented a strange appearance : he stood as if immovable, supporting 
 himself with one hand upon the back of a chair and staring at the 
 floor, with his features distorted by grief ; besides, he had a long 
 rapier with a heavy pocket-pistol in his other hand, and an iron hel- 
 met lay upon the chair, upon the back of which he was leaning. 
 
 "What is the matter with you, Mother Giulietta?" asked Brother 
 Martin. " It appears as if your son must be going out armed and 
 equipped into battle, and you are grieving over it you make such a 
 sorrowful face ! Is it so ? Or what then has happened ? " 
 
 " Hush, hush ! " whispered Frau Giulietta, in turn ; " no one must 
 find it out. The clients of the Colonna have been secretly called out. 
 The poor youth, however faithfully he wished to stay with me, 
 must now go, and that even to-day, when I need him so, and when 
 he is so crushed and despairing about the death of the poor girl now 
 lying so cold and still in there " 
 
 " Irmgard is dead ? " cried Brother Martin, startled and agitated. 
 
 " Truly she is dead ; she died at midday. If you had come earlier 
 she could have been confessed by you, and have received from you 
 the holy eucharist also. As it is, however, she has gone hence without 
 confession or sacrament ; indeed, she would not hear to it that I 
 should bring hither the curate from Sant Apostoli, and Beppo stood 
 by her, and the dwarf would not permit it either. The dwarf said if 
 the curate were brought he would be betrayed and sold out ; and so
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 347 
 
 it stands with the poor soul there now on the earth. And what will 
 become of her up there in our Saviour's heaven, when she comes in 
 without sacrament, or anointing, or absolution of sins, God only 
 knows ; but he will not call me to account for it, for I am innocent 
 in the matter, I am as innocent in it as the youngest of the chil- 
 dren whom the cruel Herod had slain in Bethlehem ! " 
 
 During this flow of speech on the part of his mother, Beppo had 
 long since stepped forward and had mutely opened the door to Irm- 
 gard's room before Brother Martin. The latter stepped in softly. 
 
 He saw Irmgard's corpse lying upon the bed. The features of the 
 young girl, pale as wax, appeared to him infinitely beautiful. It was 
 as if the whole rich and noble angelic soul, before its departure, had 
 entered into these features, and had given to this sleeping count- 
 enance its moving and peculiarly fascinating expression. 
 
 "Was she so beautiful?" asked Brother Martin, astonished, feel- 
 ing the tears upon his lashes. " How beautiful is the human soul 
 the pure human soul ! " 
 
 He wiped the moisture from his eyes and looked at Uncle Kraps. 
 The latter sat upon his chair near the bed, stared at the floor, and 
 muttered unintelligible words between his teeth : he appeared as if 
 deprived of his senses. 
 
 Brother Martin seated himself upon a stool in the window-niche. 
 He supported his head upon his hand, and thus gazed upon the 
 features of the dead. 
 
 The sight of this countenance had for him something overpowering. 
 
 " How is the human soul so beautiful ! And how infinitely sad is 
 her lot ! So sad that the best thing for her was death ! " 
 
 She had passed over into eternal rest, into the blessed beyond. 
 She was with God. Could it be otherwise ? She had not died in the 
 faith of the church. She had not been provided with the baggage 
 of the soul, had died without sacrament or anointing, as Frau 
 Giiilietta complained. But she had loved her brother in the spirit, 
 her Christ, and had died in a deed of love. Should God thrust from 
 himself this pure soul, because she came to him without the works 
 of a priest ? Could the Eternal, Infinite Spirit turn himself from 
 her, because upon the brow of the corpse did not glisten a little 
 fatty matter from an oil placed there by a priest ? It was a fearful, 
 a horrible idea, a boundless illusion, a dreadful blasphemy ! 
 
 Martin arose suddenly ; it made him quake in all his members, 
 this fearful illusion that the pardon, the love of the great Creator of
 
 348 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 the universe, of the All-merciful, of the Father of the world, would 
 be determined by such insignificant outer actions and works ! 
 
 He kissed Irmgard's cold brow, and then hastened away ; he was 
 too much moved to take leave of Frau Giulietta and Beppo other- 
 wise than with a pressure of the hand. The latter still seemed self- 
 absorbed as his mother was cleansing from dust an old, leathern 
 rider's doublet for his use. 
 
 " I will come again, I will come again to help you about the burial 
 and with the old man. Let me go now ; something else presses me," 
 he said, while he tore out for himself the bolt of the door and 
 hastened outside. 
 
 To sit by the dead body of one who had become dear to him, and 
 become absorbed in the quiet melancholy, in the tender sadness sur- 
 rounding such a death, was he allowed even that ? No ; if he 
 heeded the mission whose call he felt within him, the time was past 
 for him to do this. He must also be able to say, " Let the dead bury 
 their dead ! " That is a hard command ! You shall sacrifice your 
 feelings for the deed you have to accomplish. You shall, on its ac- 
 count, rend asunder a thousand bands of love enclasping and holding 
 you back. You shall no more exercise the anxiety of love, no more 
 be allowed to trouble yourself about the little circle surrounding you 
 with tenderness. You shall rely upon yourself, and be entirely with 
 and in yourself. You shall be spanned about with threefold brass, 
 and with the inflexible egotism of the hero, speak the great, inexo- 
 rable word, " Let the dead bury their dead." 
 
 When he stepped through the inclosing hedge of the little garden 
 he struck against a monk, who came slipping along the hedge and 
 stepped up to him. He was in the black-and-white habit of St. 
 Dominicus, a lean man, with an olive-hued face and small, blinking 
 eyes. 
 
 "Eh, Fra Agostino," he whispered, "listen, now, listen! That is 
 the house of Frau Giulietta, the widow, is it not ? . What were you 
 doing there ? Do two Germans dwell there, an old, deformed man, 
 and a girl who came in the disguise of a lad to the Hospizio dell* 
 Anima ? Do they really dwell there ? You can tell me ; I am from 
 Santa Minerva, and the Sant Uffizio wishes to know whether " 
 
 " If the Sant Uffizio is hunting for the maiden," answered Brother 
 Martin harshly, " it comes too late ; the maiden is dead." 
 
 " Dead ? Ah ! is she dead ? Is she really dead ? Then the old 
 man will wish to have masses read for her soul. The old man has
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 349 
 
 brought money here with him. Has he already ordered the masses ? 
 Have you already taken them away from us ? You Augustines 
 one encounters you everywhere ! As if they would not have been 
 better read in Santa Minerva than " 
 
 Martin listened no further. He turned his back. He made haste 
 to get away from the neighborhood of the man. As out of a pesti- 
 lential atmosphere, he was impelled to get away, as if there he 
 must be seized by the perniciosa, with which the old man with the 
 donkey had threatened him, the perniciosa of the corroding, destroy- 
 ing poison which he then felt in his bones upon the road over the 
 desolate height. 
 
 Even before that must Luther now flee. He must be entirely 
 and undividedly to himself. He did not dare to allow himself barked 
 at again by the dog of Doubt, which snarled upon him out of the 
 olive-yellow face of the Dominican. Such a mass-reading priest was 
 in the condition to throw him back into the despair of unbelief, 
 into doubt about everything. He must do away with whatever 
 could break in upon his strength of action. He must cling to his 
 Christ, and give back to the world alive him whom the church had 
 slain : the well-known God-man, the well-known Christ, as the Bible 
 gave him, not as a doubtful thinking spiritualized him to a phantom. 
 Had he not read to-day in his book, the book of the emperor : " The 
 hand can lay hold of no puff of air ; the senses of man can seize upon 
 no phantom of an idea. One cannot pray to the ' creative idea ' of 
 Plato or Aristotle's 'universal power of formation.' Religion is the 
 claim of a something eternal. The teaching of philosophy, however, 
 is always changing. It is as the wave which seizes us, lifts us up 
 or throws us under, and rushes away over us, in order to lose 
 itself in the stream of the ages. Give to the world, also, no unknown 
 God. As Paul preached to the Athenians the unknown God, they 
 would not have listened to him if he had not spoken to them of a 
 God long known to their hearts, whom they had unconsciously 
 borne about and longed for in spirit. Man had need of the old, 
 familiar fire that he might warm himself : the reflection imprisoned 
 in the mirror may dazzle us, but it does not thaw out our limbs !" 
 
 The next thing lying in the way for Brother Martin to do was now 
 to go out to Callisto's house, to bring thither the news of Irmgard's 
 death. He dare not delay to make it known to Egino and Corradina, 
 so they need no longer enter upon their course into the city, which 
 might become so fatal to them.
 
 350 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Therefore he walked the shortest way to the Porta del Popolo 
 again. As he came nearer to it he perceived that an unusually 
 strong body of armed people lingered under the gate-arch and sat 
 upon the stone benches at the sides. Was that also on account of 
 the Duke of Ferrara ? Certainly ; and it could not trouble him, the 
 poor monk. He quietly entered the crowd. 
 
 A Swiss soldier extended his halberd toward him. 
 
 "Whither, little monk? You cannot pass out! " he said. 
 
 " Is that the order ? " asked Brother Martin, in German. " Why, 
 for what purpose ? " 
 
 The Swiss replaced the halberd upon his shoulder, and when he 
 perceived the sounds peculiar to his fatherland, he answered less 
 harshly : 
 
 " It is the order, so trudge back. Anyone may come in who will, 
 but no one may go out." 
 
 " Not even a harmless monk like myself ? " 
 
 "No ; go !" 
 
 " Is it on account of the Duke of Ferrara ? You see, countryman, 
 that I am not the duke and I also do not carry him. in my gown ! " 
 
 " In what strange tongue is that monk talking? Is it German?" 
 here said a gray-bearded ruffian having the appearance of a bandit, 
 with a long knife in his girdle. " Perhaps is hidden under his gown 
 the fellow whom we seek. Come here, Fra Tedesco, and let us see 
 you under the eyes." 
 
 The man stretched out his arm to lay it upon the shoulder of 
 Brother Martin ; the latter moved back, and the Swiss soldier 
 interposed : 
 
 "Go, Lanfranco ; let him alone ! He is a German countryman, and 
 may go free whence he came." 
 
 Brother Martin found it advisable to withdraw himself quickly 
 from the crowd, and get out cf their sight. The servant of the Sa- 
 velli did not pursue him. Lanfranco, indeed, had an eye for the gait 
 of a monk ; he could see that the gown was no disguise with Brother 
 Martin. 
 
 But now, how begin ? How warn Egino ? The other neighboring 
 gates were certainly guarded in the same manner. And the walls 
 were no more to be leaped over, as Remus had once done ; they 
 were high, strong, and not to be scaled. Truly, quite near, at the 
 Strasze Ripetta, one could be put across the river ; beyond the river 
 there was no wall. But as the gates were guarded, no doubt the
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 351 
 
 bridges and ferries were also watched. There was nothing left ex- 
 cept to walk up the Pincian Mountain to the city wall running along 
 its precipice, to walk along this and seek a place where a fallen por- 
 tion or a portion undergoing repair might pres.ent the possibility of 
 getting out. 
 
 Brother Martin climbed the Pincian Hill, then turned to the city 
 wall and walked along beside it without seeing his hopes fulfilled. 
 He came farther and farther : he passed the Porta Salara, the Porta 
 Agnese ; both were watched by an unusually strong force of soldiers ; 
 ' the road was long and bad, full of obstacles, which he must mount 
 or go around. 
 
 Thus it grew darker and darker while Brother Martin, in haste and 
 anxiety, continued his walk. When he came to the Porta di Sant 
 Agnese, he saw that his design must be relinquished. If he were to 
 get out now, the road from here to Callisto's villa was too long for 
 him still to arrive there at the right time, even supposing that he did 
 not get lost in the neighborhood so entirely unknown to him. 
 
 So he gave up his intention. He decided to go home by the 
 shortest road. Walking with weary step, his heart oppressed with 
 uneasiness, he had reached the Baths of Diocletian, whose ruins 
 then still stretched to the place where the Fountain Aqua Felice 
 murmurs. 
 
 There a man met him, who went slowly past him covered with a 
 mantle, with the rim of his hat drawn down low over his face. It 
 was too dark to recognize the shaded features. But the form, the 
 carriage, reminded Brother Martin so much of Signor Callisto, that 
 he stopped and turned his head to look after him. The man had 
 also stopped to look back at Brother Martin. Now he came back to 
 the latter, and looking into his eyes, he said : 
 
 "Eh, Brother Martin, is it you ? " It was the voice of Callisto. 
 
 " It is I and I meet you here, Signor Callisto ? What has 
 happened to lead you, in night and darkness, to this deserted neigh- 
 borhood ? " 
 
 "That is easily explained, good brother. I have yielded to the 
 desire of our young friend, as we elders, in the end, are always 
 obliged to do in the presence of passionate youth ; and after what I 
 have already done, am striving to help them further in every way, in 
 order that he and Corradina may get away from here and out of 
 Rome. The most needful articles for them both are packed upon 
 my horse, and my gardener has been sent away with them out to
 
 352 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 Baccano ; there he is to await them at a quiet, out-of-the-way inn. 
 They both are to be in disguise ; I have myself seen how my Ottavia 
 was assisting the Countess Corradina.to transform herself into a 
 most stately maiden of the common folk. Then I tore myself away, 
 as the twilight was approaching, and have leisurely ridden hither in 
 advance of them. When they come from Irmgard they will turn this 
 way ; we are to meet here ; I am then to lead them through the near- 
 est gate into the open air and upon circuitous paths so far as nec- 
 essary " 
 
 "You are to conduct them through the nearest gate, Signor 
 Callisto ? My God ! so you do not know " 
 
 " That the gates are more strongly guarded than usual ? 
 Certainly, I have noticed that, as I was coming in ; but what is that 
 to us ? They are the Pope's Swiss ; that has to do with the Duke of 
 Ferrara." 
 
 " No ; it has to do with all ! " 
 
 "All?" 
 
 "So surely, that you will seek in vain to get out to pass the night 
 under your own roof ! " 
 
 " Ah ! how do you know that ? " 
 
 "I have myself already tried to get out, and have been chased 
 back ! " 
 
 "That is a bad, a dreadfully bad cross-stroke. Then our plan 
 of flight goes to the ground. What, then, shall we do ? " exclaimed 
 Callisto. 
 
 " I have tortured my brain with this question for more than 
 an hour ! " 
 
 "The unhappy Egino, with his German stubbornness!" said 
 the lawyer. 
 
 "Do not chide him. He was right in his desire. The saddest 
 thing about it is he has quite uselessly brought himself into this 
 unfortunately dangerous situation, for he comes to Irmgard too late. 
 She is dead." 
 
 "Dead?" 
 
 "She died to-day, at noon." 
 
 "Then it seems just as if a wicked demon has control over 
 the poor young man ! " 
 
 " Indeed it does ; as if a real defiance of fate ! " answered Brother 
 Martin. 
 
 " What shall we undertake in order to help him ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 353 
 
 " I know now only one thing to advise. Let us hasten to the 
 liouse of Frau Giulietta. There we shall perhaps find him, and 
 advise together whither we shall bring him and the countess till this 
 unfortunate closing of the gates comes to an end." 
 
 "Yes, yes," exclaimed Callisto ; "let us hasten thither; let us 
 hasten thither this moment ! " 
 
 They both moved quickly away through the darkness. Callisto 
 walked in advance, Brother Martin after him with weary feet. The 
 road was not too long. They saw already the dark outline of 
 Constantine's Baths emerge before them, also the high wall of 
 the Colonna Gardens, when they suddenly perceived the sound 
 of hoofs and the clatter of weapons. A troop of horsemen 
 .sprang toward them ; they had scarcely time to throw themselves to 
 one side. When they then hastened quickly forward they perceived 
 a still stronger troop, a confusion of men and horses, and the 
 loud rattling of weapons. 
 
 Before we set about explaining this, let us turn back to Egino and 
 Corradina.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THROUGH ! 
 
 IT was about Ave Maria when Egino and Corradina entered 
 upon their venturesome undertaking. Signer Callisto, 
 as he said, had already left the villa ; Donna Ottavia, 
 after having changed Corradina into a peasant-maid, had 
 embraced her with moist eyes, had again drawn the green apron in 
 folds over the heavy budget, and tied the heavy shoes more securely, 
 and then had taken leave of her and Egino with most heartfelt and 
 touching wishes for their happiness. 
 
 And so, some minutes after Callisto had left the villa, Egino and 
 Corradina stepped through its gate out on the Flaminian Way and 
 walked leisurely to the Porta del Popolo. They carried by turns a 
 basket filled with vegetables and early fruit. 
 
 The city gate appeared free. Only when they had passed through 
 did they see on the inside, right as well as left, upon the stone 
 benches, a crowd of armed watchmen, perhaps thirty or forty men,, 
 soldiers and bandits, whose long guns leaned against the wall. 
 
 The guards had taken no notice of those coming in. Only when 
 they were some steps beyond them, one of the bandits, a gray- 
 bearded man, looking after them, said : 
 
 " Who are those two ? " 
 
 " Who should they be, Lanfranco ? Gardeners, who bring vegeta- 
 bles to a palace," responded another in the same bandit costume. 
 
 Lanfranco shook his head. 
 
 " They have not the gait or the crooked backs of gardening peo- 
 ple," he said, and got up, while he added : 
 
 " Run after them and look into their faces, Niccolo ; you must 
 know your Countess Corradina." 
 
 " Oh bah ! " said Niccolo ; " I will take care not to run needlessly. 
 We are to see that they do not come out of the city, if they are still 
 
 354
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 355 
 
 in there. If they are outside, they will certainly not come in, com- 
 rade." 
 
 "Who knows?" muttered Lanfranco, sullenly, between his teeth. 
 
 Then he cried out : 
 
 " Hey, you there, people ! Here now ! " 
 
 Egino turned his head. Corradina quickened her step, and then 
 Egino also walked on more rapidly. 
 
 "The lass has no desire to allow herself chucked under the chin 
 by you ; you are too ugly to her with your uncombed beard, comrade 
 Lanfranco ! " exclaimed Niccolo, and the other guards laughed. 
 
 Comrade Lanfranco, however, had now for once had his suspicion 
 aroused, and he did not allow himself moved from it by his compan- 
 ions. He pursued the pair. 
 
 His sandals were soft, the street unpaved, so his step remained 
 inaudible. Soon they also reached an inhabited street, where traffic, 
 though now less, had not yet died out, and this made it more diffi- 
 cult to notice such pursuit. 
 
 Egino and Corradina moved on rapidly. At length they reached 
 the foot of the Quirinal Hill, and climbed with slower pace. Two 
 fellows having the appearance of bandits met them ; the two were 
 chatting together in an animated way, and did not notice the fugi- 
 tives. The latter soon beheld the ruins of the Baths of Constantine 
 close before them. Suddenly, however, they heard a cry behind them. 
 
 Egino looked around in surprise, since he thought he recognized 
 the same voice which had already called to him before at the gate. 
 He saw the two bandits who had just passed him, in company with 
 a third, hastening after him ; what they were calling out he did not 
 understand. 
 
 " Let us flee, let us flee ! " whispered Corradina, in alarm. 
 
 " No, no," said Egino ; " not that ! They would overtake us, and 
 then it would be so much worse for us. We must remain calm, and 
 try to deceive them ; but you must talk with them, because I might 
 betray myself by the strikingly foreign accent of my speech." 
 
 Seemingly calm they continued their way, and came almost to a 
 high-towering, black corner of the wall of the baths, which here 
 projected to the road. Still, before they had quite reached the spot 
 where the road ran around this corner of the wall, the three men, 
 calling and abusing them, had caught up. Corradina, turning to 
 them, while Egino seized the handle of a dagger in his breast-pocket, 
 said :
 
 356 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 " What do you wish, people ? If you are gentlemen, let us go and 
 bring these fruits to the Colonna palace ; we are poor gardeners, 
 that you see truly " 
 
 "The Devil!" exclaimed one of the three, no one else but Lan- 
 franco, who had found in the two others good friends, and appeared 
 to have had them join him in order to end the wearisome pursuit, 
 and to assure himself whether or not his suspicion had grounds; 
 "the Devil! I will swallow your vegetables there uncooked and the 
 basket thrown in, if that is true ! " 
 
 With that he laid his fist upon Corradina's shoulder, and stepping 
 close before her looked into her face, while the other two seized 
 Egino's two arms, in order at once to make defense impossible to- 
 him. Egino tore himself loose from them, while Lanfranco added : 
 
 " Do you think I don't know you, Donna Corradina? Do you think 
 old Lanfranco is so stupid ' 
 
 Lanfranco could not end, for he already, at this moment, felt upon 
 his neck the hand of Egino, who hurled him back from Corradina, 
 and with the other hand drew forth the dagger and raised it, in order 
 therewith to keep from his person the two other bandits, who now, 
 uttering half-audible curses, again pressed upon him. 
 
 Corradina uttered a cry of alarm. She threw herself upon Lan- 
 franco, who, the instant Egino turned against the others, tried to 
 seize his lower arm, in order to make him defenseless and to wrest 
 from him the dagger. Mutely pressing his teeth together Egino 
 struggled against this with a tenacious strength, which would have 
 been fully a match for that of the old bandit ; the two others, how- 
 ever, rushed upon him so violently, that they forced him down on 
 his knees. Corradina saw that they must have overpowered him 
 before many seconds would pass. 
 
 At this instant, though, two entirely unexpected apparitions ap- 
 proached the group wrestling in the darkness and wound in a tangle. 
 There suddenly sounded in close proximity to them the strokes of 
 horses' feet, and the clinking of weapons, and an outcry ; two snort- 
 ing horses as suddenly threw a dark shadow upon those contending, 
 and a suppressed voice cried : 
 
 "Accidentc ! what is going on here ? Disperse, there, or I will hew 
 your pates, mob ! " 
 
 The man who called this down from his horse brandished at the 
 same time a broad and long sword over the heads of the bandits, and 
 came down with a flat stroke upon Lanfranco's back.
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 357 
 
 Corradina had already rushed toward them, and seizing the knee 
 of the rider, she cried : 
 
 " Sir, save us from these bandits. In the Redeemer's name, save 
 
 us 
 
 " Body of the Madonna ! Go to the hangman ! " cried Lanfranco, 
 on the contrary. " What business have you to meddle with it ? We 
 are no bandits ; we are subjects of the Savelli, and these are our 
 prisoners. Help us to make them fast ! " 
 
 " Who are they ? " asked the horseman, as if in surprise. 
 
 " Does that concern you ? They are those whom we seek, 
 whom " 
 
 "But you know us!" now exclaimed Egino, aloud, for he had 
 looked searchingly into the countenance of the horseman, whose 
 voice had a sound familiar to him. 
 
 The horseman stooped over to look as well as possible into the 
 face of Egino, and then into that of Corradina, and, startled thereby, 
 he said : 
 
 "You is it you ? And this," he added, quickly rising erect, and 
 after that whispering a few words to the other horseman near him, 
 "this pretends to be a servant of the Savelli ? You are bandits, 
 gallows-birds, cutthroats, scabby dogs, rabble, that belong to the 
 galleys ! Cut among them, Gregorio, if they do not act as if they 
 will get away ! " 
 
 With that he brought out his long sword as if he would bring it 
 down upon Lanfranco's skull. The bandits bounded back. 
 
 Lanfranco uttered an oath ; the other horseman, however, crowded 
 upon him likewise with his horse and drawn sword : if he would not 
 be trodden down he must turn and flee, and the other bandits fol- 
 lowed him, stumbling down the steep path. 
 
 "But, for God's sake," said Egino, taking a deep breath, " how did 
 you come here just at the right moment to be our rescuer, Beppo ? 
 More than that, how have you become a horseman ? " 
 
 "Follow me, follow me," hastily replied Beppo, transformed into a 
 horseman, and he turned his horse around. " I will save you, you 
 and the lady there ; for Irmgard's sake I will save you, but make 
 haste ! " 
 
 Egino and Corradina followed him, while the other horseman 
 remained near them. 
 
 When, after a few steps, they came around the corner of the 
 ruined walls, they saw a whole group of horsemen, perhaps ten or
 
 358 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 fifteen, keeping themselves in the dark shadow of the ruin. Beppo 
 spoke some words with the first of them, then he beckoned to Egino 
 with his hand ; and while the second horseman remained with the 
 troop, Beppo rode farther over the dry, grassy surface. Egino and 
 Corradina had trouble to keep up with him. 
 
 They came past the hedge inclosing Frau Giulietta's little 
 garden. 
 
 " Beppo," here exclaimed Egino, " is not that your mother's 
 house, the dwelling of Irmgard ? Whither are you conducting us ? 
 We came to see Irmgard. We are on our flight ; before going, 
 we wish to see Irmgard ! " 
 
 "Irmgard is dead!" answered Beppo, in a subdued undertone. 
 " There in the room you see the light shimmer through the shutters ; 
 there she lies ! " 
 
 " Dead ? O my God ! " 
 
 " She died a few hours ago." 
 
 Corradina seized Egino's arm, as if to support him or as if in 
 a violent emotion. 
 
 Egino had stopped ; a sudden pang convulsed him. He stood 
 as if rooted to the earth. 
 
 " Forward, forward ! " cried Beppo, turning back and looking down 
 from his horse, walking in advance of them. " I will save you, both 
 of you, for her sake ! Otherwise she would have died in vain, if you 
 were not saved. But you must hasten ! " 
 
 "Whither, then, do you lead us ? " asked Corradina now, dragging 
 Egino after her. 
 
 Beppo pointed with his hand to a strong troop, which at this 
 moment became visible to them, as they turned around a corner 
 of the high wall of the Colonna gardens. Before the gate which 
 still to-day leads out of these gardens upon the Monte Cavallo, 
 the ridge of the Ouirinal Hill, tarried perhaps fifty horsemen, 
 part high on horseback, part standing near the horses. When they 
 came nearer they perceived that all these men were armed, many as 
 regular warriors, with breastplates and helmets, pistols and swords, 
 many only with helmets and long daggers. Still, almost all the last 
 wore also strong doublets of buffalo-skin and cavalry-boots drawn 
 high up to the knee, the same costume in which Beppo also sat 
 upon his black warhorse. 
 
 "There are led-horses and horses of burden there," continued 
 Beppo. " To provide for the accident that some of our horses are shot
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 359 
 
 or stabbed, we have taken along horses as substitutes. Come, now ; 
 I will get one for each of you." 
 
 He rode farther, and led Egino and Corradina into the midst of the 
 crowd of horsemen. Here took place a brief interchange of words 
 between Beppo and a tall, strongly built man, who wore a black cap 
 upon his bearded head, while his helmet hung down from the horn 
 of his saddle. The man appeared to make objections. 
 
 "What help to us is a man who has no sword, but, instead of that, 
 takes a wife with him ? " Egino heard him say. 
 
 Beppo grew angry. 
 
 " But he is a warrior, and a sword will also be found ; and if you 
 people of Ferrara are not willing to help us who are clients of the 
 Colonna, you have only to say so ; we will then go home, and let you 
 see how you come through ! " 
 
 The other muttered something in his beard ; Beppo, however, had 
 .already sprung away and handed over his animal to a horseman. He 
 brought from the circle a riderless horse, upon which he lifted Cor- 
 radina, then quickly a second for Egino. Corradina was too much 
 accustomed to riding not to feel soon comfortable and firm in the 
 saddle ; Egino had swung himself up in an instant without stirrups. 
 Beppo now hastened back to his horse, and was just loosing his pis- 
 tol from his saddle, where it hung, in order to reach it over to Egino, 
 while the latter was grasping with his right hand for the reins of 
 Corradina's horse, in order to draw it closer to his side. 
 
 At this instant, however, sounded forth a short, shrill whistle 
 from the garden ; immediately afterward appeared at its gate sev- 
 eral armed men, who, coming out, seemed to issue orders, and, as well 
 as the darkness enabled one to make out, to throw themselves upon 
 richly equipped horses, which were led out before them. From a 
 short distance beyond, the sound of hoofs reached them ; this indi- 
 cated that the troop halting behind the angle of the wall, to which 
 Beppo had first led Egino, had darted away as advance force. The 
 man in the cap, with whom Beppo had contended, cried out, " Ad- 
 vance ! " And the whole crowd put themselves in motion, at first 
 in a walk, then in a very fast trot. They went over the ridge of the 
 Ouirinal, over the same road which Brother Martin traversed when 
 he, coming from Frau Giulietta's house, had gone to the Porta del 
 Popolo, with the baying dog continuously at his side. 
 
 While the tall and heavy horses were now rushing forward, their 
 violent movements prevented all conversation, even if it had been
 
 360 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 possible, in spite of the clatter of harness and weapons and the 
 strokes of hoofs upon the hard, dry ground, to make one's self un- 
 derstood. But they had soon reached the part of the road where it 
 descended to the lower city, and where, with shortened reins, they 
 must ride in a walk. Egino now saw Beppo at his side, and catch- 
 ing his breath he exclaimed : 
 
 " But I beg you, Beppo, now explain to us among what people we 
 are, who are thus bearing us away, as if we are held captive by a 
 dream." 
 
 "Among what people you are!" remarked Beppo, breathing as 
 heavily from the quick ride. "Are you not aware ? The lords there 
 behind us are the Duke of Ferrara and the illustrious Fabricio 
 Colonna ; the host of warriors around us are the Duke Alfonso's colos- 
 sal people, in whose attendance he has come hither ; we others, 
 we are the clients of the Colonna, called out to their support. We 
 have fallen upon the bargello with his deputies, who were guarding 
 the palace over at the Holy Apostles, and have gagged him and 
 dragged him to the court of the palace. Our way now leads to the 
 Porta del Popolo, at which we must cut ourselves a way through, and 
 to the Ponte Molle, which we must, likewise, take by storm. The 
 object is to bring the Duke of Ferrara into liberty and safety. The 
 Holy Father wishes to have him brought early in the morning to 
 the Castle of St. Angelo, and we are bringing him to-night into 
 liberty. The master of the house of our Lord Fabricio has secretly 
 called out to-day those of his clients skilled in arms and all of us 
 who can ride, and he has provided for us horses and weapons. It has 
 been done quite in secret, so there are of our men altogether not 
 more than sixty ; but I think we will be enough to make our way 
 through. Now you know all about it." 
 
 "And that you previously came to us just at the right moment to 
 give us help against the brigands " 
 
 " I was with the advance troop," interposed Beppo. " We were 
 keeping quiet behind the old wall, when we perceived the cries and 
 your struggling with the brigands close in our vicinity, and so I 
 came just at the right moment to rescue you." 
 
 " And how shall we thank you," here remarked Corradina, " that 
 you have taken us with you, and now lead us away in such stately, 
 certain protection ?" 
 
 "You need not thank me, noble lady," responded Beppo. "I 
 save you, because the poor Irmgard would have seen you saved, who-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 36 r 
 
 is now up yonder with the angels. Poor Irmgard ! From this dark r 
 star-sprinkled heaven she will look down upon us ! She will see you 
 and also me. She will be as a saint who sees everything and hears, 
 every prayer that a poor mortal may direct to her will she not ? " 
 
 "Certainly," said Egino ; "and she will also see how full of grati- 
 tude our heart is for you, Beppo ! " 
 
 " Oh, thank you ! " exclaimed Beppo, almost involuntarily. "Should 
 I have let you be captured here by these people of the Savelli ? They 
 would have tortured you, and put you to the rack till you would con- 
 fess everything to the very last : how your escape out of the cloister 
 of Santa Sabina was set on foot ; who had aided you in your flight ; 
 how Irmgard had found you, and how Beppo had guided the poor 
 maiden ; and how he, again, then conducted you out of the vaults ; 
 and then it would have gone hard with Beppo ! So, if I did not do it 
 for the sake of the dead Irmgard, and if I had not been anxious for 
 her friends to escape unhurt, I must yet have done it for my own 
 sake ! But what happens to-night must Lord Fabricio Colonna settle 
 later with the Holy Father ; we do only what is commanded by our 
 patron, and nothing beyond that concerns us who are dependent 
 upon his protection, and must follow when he wishes our attendance. 
 Therefore do not talk to me of thanks, but rather seat yourself 
 firmly in the stirrups ; you hear how they have just fallen upon each 
 other at the gate." 
 
 In fact, from there resounded cries and noise of weapons ; the ad- 
 vance troop must, at this moment, have encountered the watch at 
 gate. 
 
 " Forward ! " again cried aloud the leader of the cavalry host. 
 
 The horses were spurred up ; the whole crowd, closely balled to- 
 gether, sprang to the gate ; one could hear thence cries and shrieks 
 amid the rattling of weapons clashing together. Above the dark 
 bodies of prancing horses could be perceived the blades of swords 
 drawn out for a stroke, brandished partisans and halberds. Now, also, 
 firearms flashed ; the crash of the heavy discharge echoed from the 
 front of the Church of Santa Maria and the nearest walls. Still, the 
 guard, surprised and thrown into consternation by the suddenness of 
 the attack, seemed ready to yield, when the chief troop came to the 
 spot and swung their weapons in order, pressing forward to enter 
 into the contest. 
 
 Those in advance already were shouting aloud the battle-cry : " A 
 noble Este ! A noble Colonna ! "
 
 362 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 The gate was taken ; the guards were scattered in flight except a 
 half-dozen men, who were surrounded, and compelled by swords held 
 before them and by flat strokes to draw up again the falling-gate, 
 which had been let down by them at the first alarm. 
 
 When this had been done the whole crowd, like a storm-wind, 
 rushed farther down the Flaminian Way, past the Villa of Callisto 
 lying there in the dark. The space of a quarter of an hour later and 
 the Tiber bridge, more feebly guarded than the gate, was won with 
 less effort : with the far bank liberty was attained liberty for the 
 Duke of Ferrara, as well as for Esfino and the woman of his love.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE MORTARA CHILD OF THE WORLD.* 
 
 E have left Brother Martin and the lawyer upon the 
 height of the Quirinal, at the spot which one to-day calls 
 Monte Cavallo, from the prancing, colossal horses, as- 
 cribed to the chisels of Phidias and Praxiteles, and 
 formerly erected here as an ornament to the adjacent Baths of 
 Sixtus V. 
 
 The two men had seen how also the second, larger troop of horse- 
 men set themselves in motion, and had again fled to one side to get 
 out of their way. Since they moved at first less rapidly than the 
 advance troop, and passed the two men in a walk, this gave the 
 latter time to perceive the two forms riding in the midst of the pro- 
 cession, who, from their dress and appearance, presented a strange 
 aspect among the martial folk. 
 
 Although it was already far too dark for certain recognition, still, 
 Callisto exclaimed in surprise : 
 
 " Do you see those two, the man and the maiden in the peasant 
 garb, Brother Martin ? If they were our friends ! " 
 
 " You must know better than I," said Brother Martin, cut- 
 ting short his speech, " how you have disguised Egino and his 
 countess to make them unrecognizable, and whether or not it could 
 be they." 
 
 " It was certainly they ; I could swear to it ! " added Callisto. 
 
 " But what, then, can all this mean ? Who are these horsemen ; 
 how come our friends among them ? Are they discovered ? Are 
 they carried away as prisoners ? For what purpose, then, this crowd 
 of giant-like people ? Have you any idea, Signer Callisto ? " 
 
 " Not the least ; we can do nothing to solve this riddle except to 
 
 * "Reference is here made to a child of the Mortara family, which was stolen and brought up as 
 a devotee to the Catholic faith, though his parents had chosen for their child a career entij-ely 
 different." Professor Helved, of State College, Lexington, Ky. 
 
 363
 
 364 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 go to the house of Frau Giulietta, lying here before us ; perhaps we 
 may receive information there." 
 
 " God grant it ! " said Brother Martin, excited, and walking with 
 redoubled haste to the house indicated by Callisto. They came 
 into the garden of Frau Giulietta, and saw, standing immovable, a 
 woman of her size and form close to the hedge-opening which served 
 .as an entrance. It seemed as if she were listening to the hoof- 
 strokes of the horses dying away in the distance. 
 
 " Is it you, Donna Giulietta yes, it is you ; and you recognize 
 us ? " whispered Callisto. 
 
 " Certainly, certainly, Signer Callisto," answered Frau Giulietta, 
 quickly. " Had I not already, long since, recognized your voice, do 
 you think I would have so quietly waited here your approach in 
 this dreadful night, when I have the dead there behind me in the 
 house, and am now still more desolate and lonely with her in the 
 .still house where only the old, bewitched man sits by her bed and 
 does not stir or move, and will not take a bit of food in his mouth, 
 -and only mutters words which no Christian man can understand, and 
 which are, in the end, only witchcraft, with which the old wizard 
 makes my whole house and possessions and all of us unhappy ? Oh ! 
 walk in, Signer Callisto, and see 
 
 " Stop, only stop, Frau Giulietta," said Callisto, interrupting her 
 words. " Only tell us quickly, were Count Egino and the Countess 
 Corradina here ? And what signifies the crowd of horsemen passing 
 us just now? and who were the people of the peasantry who were 
 being borne away so swiftly in their midst ? " 
 
 " Who the horsemen were I can tell you, Signer Callisto," 
 responded Frau Giulietta, eagerly; "for now, since they have carried 
 it out and are up and away, it is not necessary to be silent any 
 longer, so full of secrecy as Beppo, the poor youth, has been over it 
 all day ; for he is with them, you must know, Signer Callisto, Beppo ; 
 and he is s'o clever and quick, and also firm in the saddle as an old 
 rider, and, in truth, useful in every way. They have given him a part 
 to command, 'him and Grcgorio Benvieni, our cousin. May God 
 now have them all in his protection, and guard them from misfor- 
 tune ; for if anything should happen to Beppo, you see, Signor Cal- 
 listo, it would just be my death. I don't know what I 
 
 " But, Donna Giulietta," said Callisto, breaking in upon her 
 speech, " you were going to tell us what all this means. I pray you 
 come to the point ; who were these horsemen ? "
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 365 
 
 " Didn't I tell you, Signer Callisto, that they are the subjects of 
 the Colonna and the horsemen of Este. Our lord and patron, 
 Fabricio Colonna, has received promises from the Holy Father that 
 Alfonso should have kindness and peace from him ; and now that he 
 has come, the illustrious Alfonso, the Holy Father wishes to force 
 him to leave his land and to withdraw to Asti, from this on to dwell 
 as a beggar; and Fabricio Colonna will not suffer that one should 
 thus deceive his friend and guest, and therefore they are conducting 
 him with an armed force out of the city." 
 
 "God be with us ! " broke in Brother Martin, with a deep breath 
 of relief. 
 
 " But the two, the young man and the maiden, who were being 
 carried away ? " 
 
 " I know nothing of a young man and a maiden," answered Frau 
 Giulietta. 
 
 " Perhaps honest Beppo has recognized them, and now rescues 
 them," said Callisto. 
 
 " Certainly it is so ! At least, we can do nothing else but hope 
 that it is so !" exclaimed Brother Martin. 
 
 "And perhaps this turn of affairs will be for my good," added 
 Callisto. " If the Colonna break through the gate-guards and dis- 
 perse them, the way will also be opened to me to get home and 
 quiet Donna Ottavia's fears. Come, Brother Martin, there is noth- 
 ing left us but to bid Frau Giulietta good-night and walk home." 
 
 Frau Giulietta would gladly have broken out again into complaints 
 about how lonely she was now without Beppo, and about how she 
 was afraid to go back into her house, with the still corpse and the 
 wizard muttering his incantations ; but the two men withdrew from 
 her, and instantly disappeared in the darkness. After walking a 
 quarter of an hour, they were at the cloister of Santa Maria and the 
 Porta del Popolo. 
 
 Callisto had cherished a deceptive hope when he thought they 
 would now let him out ; the surprised guard had now recovered from 
 their fright and their overthrow, and were again assembled, and 
 shoved him back angrily and with curses. Perhaps it was the mili- 
 tary order to which they held, in spite of the fact that the reason for 
 it had now ceased to exist, and the closing of the gate had become 
 aimless. Perhaps, also, they were too lazy to draw up the heavy 
 falling-gate, now again let down. Signor Callisto must reconcile 
 himself to seeking a shelter for the night with one of his acquaint-
 
 366 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 ances dwelling near by. Brother Martin went to seek out his 
 cloister and his cell, and there, tired to death, let himself drop down 
 upon his couch. 
 
 It was late the next morning when he awoke out of an invigora- 
 ting slumber ; he had slept through the matin service of the monks, 
 as well as the morning masses and the breakfast-time. He was 
 obliged to beg of the lay brother appointed to his service a little 
 milk and bread ; and when this had been brought to him he began 
 to tie up his bundles. It was little that he had brought hither ; 
 what he was taking away was not much more, a little linen, so 
 much as a traveling monk needed, and some legal documents from 
 the process which he had been sent here to carry on, and several 
 books which he had found opportunity to buy in Rome, and partly 
 also in Verona and Bologna, on his way hither. Fastened together, 
 all these now made a burden too heavy for a pedestrian to carry. 
 Some other means of bearing them away must be devised. Treas- 
 ures of this kind, such as, for the most part, were scarcely to be had 
 at home in Germany, could not be left behind. 
 
 Then he devoted the day to taking leave of Rome. It was a 
 mute leave-taking : first, from some sacred places where he had 
 prayed and meditated when he first made a pilgrimage through the 
 " Eternal City " ; from the finest of the basilicas, in whose great and 
 magnificent naves wherein Christians of remote centuries had knelt, 
 the spirit of the pure, primitive times of the faith had blown upon 
 him, the spirit of the Apostles, and of those who had died as martyrs 
 to the evangelical truth. He went to take leave of the graves of 
 the Apostles ; and coming home from there, he stepped once, more 
 into the Pantheon of Agrippa, into the silent domain of beautiful 
 paganism which here still extended its arches over him, so great, so 
 bright, so illumined by thought ; he mounted once more to the Cap- 
 itol, from which Rome had plundered the world ; he let his glance 
 sweep over the ruins of the Palaces of the Caesars and the high walls 
 of the Flavian Amphitheater, and fixed it then, for the last time, upon 
 the world of ruins at his feet, upon the spot where once upon the 
 Forum fell the dice for the destinies of the earth. 
 
 At last he stepped into a restaurant lying upon his way, and al- 
 lowed himself helped to wine and something to eat. They brought 
 to him food, and a bottle woven around with a bright straw, and a 
 little tin cup, out upon a table nailed together out of rough planks, 
 which stood before the house under a great mulberry tree. In the
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 367 
 
 shade of the tree he seated himself upon a piece of red marble, a 
 block of that antico rosso which Africa had paid as tribute to Rome, 
 the mistress of the world, which fifteen hundred or two thousand 
 years before had perhaps formed the altar of a god or the socle of a 
 hero's statue, and which now served for the seat of the German 
 monk Martin with his thought-laden brain. 
 
 The restaurant lay high ; one overlooked from the place under the 
 mulberry tree a good bit of the "Eternal City" and the Campagna, 
 and behind them the pure, beautifully sweeping lines of the two 
 mountains with the little cities, castles, and settlements of the prim- 
 itive Latin times on their cliffs. In his farewell wanderings and 
 ramblings through the city, the whole day had almost disappeared 
 before Brother Martin was aware. 
 
 Now, the sun already sunk, the air was so clear and transparent 
 that all distances became near, and every point of the landscape 
 seemed attainable in the shortest space. Was it not as if one could 
 count the windows in the houses of Frascati ? But still, the distance 
 bore a wonderfully fine shimmer of violet, and the sky above the 
 heights and above the Campagna began to glow in rosy tints ; the 
 light of dying day heralded its approach with all the magic of a 
 southern sunset. 
 
 It came with all the deeply moving beauty with which the golden 
 flames and the purple tints of evening gleamed above the heights of 
 this wonder-land, diffused themselves, and blended into ravishing 
 hues ; with that beauty which Dante felt when he sang so proudly 
 his" father-land, "// bel pcesa, chc il mar circonda ;" which filled the 
 heart of Filicaja with such deep melancholy when he expressed pity 
 for this "Dono in/dice di bcllcza" and which influenced in Lord Byron 
 that sadness, placing upon his lips that winged word of the " Niobe 
 of the Nations." 
 
 The German cloister brother, however, when he looked upon the 
 Eternal City, woven about with the eternal beauty of enchanting 
 nature, thought of Horace's celebrated stanza : 
 
 " Alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui 
 Promis et celas, aliusque et idem 
 Nasceris; possis nihil urbe Roma 
 Visere majus ! " 
 
 "In truth," he said to himself, "the world has nothing greater! 
 She is the creature, the child, the heiress of the world, this Rome ! 
 The generations of men, as they have succeeded each other, have
 
 368 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 built her ; the nations have created their best for her. Egyptians, 
 Greeks, Etruscans, Latins they all have left their treasures for her 
 culture, and the great spirits of mankind, the creative geniuses, their 
 best works. From the upper Nile, out of the city of a hundred 
 palaces, came this marble ; out of Greece came the artists who, out 
 of such blocks, created the magnificence of statuary. Thus the 
 world adorns her creature ; she belongs to the world, she is the eter- 
 nal possession of the nations. But the priests came and took this 
 child of the world to bring it up in their faith, to fill it with their 
 superstition, to put upon it a monk's gown." 
 
 If this German critic had lived in our days, he would have broken 
 out in the cry : 
 
 " In truth, this child of the world, this rich heiress of the nations, 
 whom they have won for the cloister, is the Mortara child of the 
 world's history." 
 
 As it was, however, only a great aching, a great pain of farewell, 
 passed through his heart, while he said to himself that he must go, 
 never to return. The hands which had taken possession of the 
 heiress of history, had risen in hostility against men of his spirit. 
 They drove him out, away out of this beautiful world ; away from 
 the Ausonian soil ; from the soft and gentle breezes of evergreen 
 gardens ; from the neighborhood of the sublime monuments of an- 
 tiquity ; from the circle of a life refined by manners, ennobled by art 
 and poesy; from this atmosphere of a care-free enjoyment of exist- 
 ence, where it would cost nothing but a little mute subjection, 
 nothing but a little treachery to an inner fidelity to self, to the feel- 
 ing of truth, and to living testimony, in order to become led easily 
 and smoothly past sin and vice, and through death into the luminous 
 gate of heaven, into the eternal continuation of the care-free life 
 here below. From all this Brother Martin felt himself shut out, 
 banished, driven away. 
 
 The bridge was broken down between them and him, and a deep 
 abyss yawned between the men of works and the men of faith, as he 
 called his love. Rome thrust him from her forever. He turned 
 upon her his back as did Tannhauser, who had come thirsting for 
 reconciliation, and whose German impulse of soul had also not un- 
 derstood Rome. He went home over the Alps into the German 
 father-land, the cradle of the human thought of the future. Upon 
 his breast rested the gospel of this future. 
 
 There were the leaves of the great Hohenstaufen emperor. Once
 
 LUTHER IN ROME, 369 
 
 had the kingdom been overthrown because these Hohenstaufens 
 had united their political destinies with the destiny of Italy. Now, 
 the greatest of these would avenge the overthrow ; he punished the 
 rebellion and the tearing loose of rebellious powers from the king- 
 dom, while he with sharp sword-stroke divided, also, the religious 
 destinies of the two peoples, and tore loose the faith of the native 
 land from the faith of that beyond the Alps. 
 
 Such a sword-stroke this doctrine contained by his book would, 
 indeed, become, so soon as this book was placed in the hand of the 
 proper champion chosen by God. 
 
 When Brother Martin came home to his cloister, the gate-keeper 
 gave to him a sealed note. The porter said a man from the villa of 
 Signor Callisto Minucci had brought it. When Martin had broken 
 the seal he read the words : 
 
 " Callisto's gardener, who brings home with him this note, will tell 
 you that we are safe. We await you, Brother Martin, beyond the 
 boundary, in Sienna."
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR. 
 
 " 7Vit' real Pope, thai is the righteous will ; 
 And not in Rome this divells, but in ourselves!'* 
 
 Z. WERNER, "The Consecration of Power." 
 
 JT was five days later. A quarter of an hour distant from 
 the city of Sienna, on the road leading to Rome, at a well 
 placed there for the refreshing of travelers, two men had 
 laid themselves down, rejoicing, as it seemed, in the rest 
 under the thick shade of the plane trees surrounding this repose- 
 inviting place. 
 
 One of them, a little, oldish, deformed man, lay stretched out 
 upon the hard ground covered with short grass. He had his 
 two elbows propped up, let his capacious jaws rest upon his fists, 
 and stared, apparently without thought, at the fresh, bubbling water 
 which was rushing down out of the stone-hewn lion's mouth into 
 a sarcophagus, thus converted into a trough. 
 
 The other was a white-clad monk, who sat reading upon a seat 
 at the side of the well. He had, in truth, on account of the 
 heat, thrown off the black cape, which hung half out of the 
 hamper of a donkey standing still, with sunken head, near the 
 man stretched out on the grass. This animal betrayed life only by 
 the oscillations of his tail, with which he drove from himself the 
 dense swarm of flies buzzing about him. 
 
 In the hampers of the donkey one perceived all kinds of effects, 
 above all, a package of heavy books. The monk was absorbed in 
 the little book held in his hand. 
 
 The book of the Emperor Frederick II. had been written by him 
 about the time of the Council of Lyons, in the days when Innocent 
 IV., with only one hundred and forty French and Spanish bishops, 
 had excommunicated the emperor, declared his crown forfeited, form- 
 
 370
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 371 
 
 ally displaced him from his kingdom, and, in the fullness of spiritual 
 power, had taken from the German nation her anointed and crowned 
 head. This had been the great death-stroke for the old Germanic 
 empire. Frederick had called upon the kings and princes to conquer 
 this hierarchy, which, with open violence, snatched for itself the 
 mastery of the world. But the kings and princes had deserted him, 
 and submitted. The people bowed themselves to the yoke of the 
 priesthood, and the deserted emperor, who, with broad view, saw in 
 the future the wretchedness and inner ruin which must enter into 
 Germany, if the " German individuality," the tendency to divide and 
 separate and struggle apart in a thousand directions, thus received 
 the consecration and blessing of the church, which tore away the 
 imiting band of the nation the abandoned emperor could do 
 nothing but hold his banner laboriously aloft with his remaining 
 strength, till it should fall from his dying hand ; and then, dying, 
 to bequeath the expression of his own inner spiritual freedom to him 
 whom the future would send to avenge him. 
 
 He thought of this : 
 
 " Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor." 
 
 But what he wrote down for this avenger were far less the oracles 
 of a philosopher, who, in seclusion from the world, sought treasures 
 in the still mine of his thoughts, than the practical hints, counsels, 
 and warnings of a man who had grown up in worldly pursuits, had 
 been educated to human shrewdness, and had learned to reckon with 
 the real. 
 
 "Men as they are," he had written, "need still a supernatural, 
 divine warrant for the law according to which they are to act. The 
 authority of the reason and of thought will always lead only the wise 
 and good ; the power of beauty will extend over only beautiful 
 hearts. The great mass, in order that the law may have authority 
 over them, need the seal of wonder and the signature of a hand 
 coming out of the clouds. 
 
 " Let us not contend with the masses about this. Do not waste 
 your strength in struggles over their dogmas. If they need to con- 
 sider the Holy Spirit a white dove, then do not think it will be much 
 advantage if you pluck out of this white dove a part of its feathers. 
 Do not think when you have broken to pieces the dogmas in the 
 hand of the priests, that the priests have been won to the service of 
 the truth. You are not to take away the dogmas from the priests ;
 
 372 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 no, but the priests from the dogmas. By this course alone will you 
 see minds gradually make themselves free. 
 
 " And you will be able to do it, if you place mankind and their. 
 God in the proper relation to each other, which relation was hidden 
 from the ancients, and which Christ has revealed ; for the ancients 
 did not find it out : with one people of them, mankind was made too 
 subordinate, and became as nothing, and was overwhelmed under the 
 weight of its representation of God, as with the Indians and the 
 Jews ; mankind became the slave of their God ; with another race, 
 God became the servant of man ; the human crushed out the divine 
 nature, and finally made sport of it, as with the Greeks and Romans. 
 God, however, is not the servant of man, nor is man the slave of 
 God ; we are sons of the Great Father, and between father and son 
 no priest need thrust himself. The priest knows that ' divide et im- 
 pcra? and acts accordingly. Since, however, the Deity does not 
 allow himself stirred up against man by the priest, the priest instills 
 into man a dread of the Deity. 
 
 '' Others before you have wished to give to the world a better, a 
 more worthy priesthood. You give to each one the pure, higher 
 man in himself as his priest ; for in each one there are two men, 
 the one which errs, makes mistakes, grows diseased, and sins, and the 
 other which repents, makes atonement, and loves. Give to each one 
 this higher man for a priest, for an intercessor between him and the 
 Eternal. This inner priesthood will bring to the world the doctrine 
 of the liberty of faith and of thought, and it will also bring the 
 doctrine of the freedom of natures and characters. 
 
 " For the natures of men are different ; the weak and mild seek a 
 road upon which to walk gently forward, different from that over 
 which the strong and impetuous rush ahead. Only one way leads 
 to Rome, but a thousand lead to Jerusalem. Whoever hears God 
 in the beating of his heart needs not the thunder of a Sinai, which 
 no more fills him with alarm. 
 
 " Also the races differ in nature. You cannot span together the 
 bear, the lion, and the horse in the same yoke, nor nourish them all 
 with the same food. You will never teach the German to think of 
 his God as the Chaldean or the Scandinavian, nor that he pray to 
 him as the Indian. As each one has in his higher self his priest, so 
 each race has its high-priest, according to the genius of the nation. 
 
 "Teach the princes to hear the voice of their reason, of their soul, 
 and of their poor subjects, and force into their ear the cry of com-
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 373 
 
 plaint from the disturbed, severed kingdom. Cause them to blush 
 for shame that the crown of the great Emperor Karl and of the 
 .Ottos has become a plaything in the hand of the priest, with which 
 he rewards an obedient child. Show to them yourself a reward. 
 There is sufficient for this in the booty of the conflict ; for will 
 there not fall to them what you take back of the unrighteous 
 mammon, in which the church is suffocated ? Truly, the word of 
 Christ, ' My kingdom is not of this world,' points the princes to a rich 
 inheritance, and calls them to share the treasures of more than the 
 Indies. 
 
 " In one thing, however, above all, be shrewd. Work by 
 means of the word, less by means of the deed. Be courageous with 
 the word, but timid about the deed, for the deed draws you to things 
 incalculable. Not for your word, but for your deed, will the 
 enemies punish you. Call the believers away from the temples, 
 call them to you ; the temple, however, and the image therein, leave 
 standing, or its watchmen will slay you. 
 
 "Whoever goes into the field against the whole world at once, 
 is beaten before the slaughter has begun. No prophet has the 
 power, by one and the same sermon, to take away from the 
 priests their benefices and tithes ; from the princes their bondmen 
 and their revenues ; from the citizens their superstitions ; and 
 from men all their vices. Therefore do not call your congregation 
 to you by an alarm of bells, and do not stride along as a 
 preacher of penitence who threatens, and punishes, and curses. The 
 world has had more than enough of them. It is folly to think, 
 because the Pope revels at a luxurious table, a man can be of 
 use to humanity if he eats locusts in a hairy garment. The truth is 
 the same, whether it is made known in a velvet mantle or in 
 the skin of a beast. 
 
 "If you wish to bring liberty, remember her foster-mother is 
 culture. An unbelieving, but cultivated man, stands nearer God 
 than the savage who is full of faith ; for the former can have 
 love, the latter cannot. 
 
 " Before all, do not force yourself to martyrdom. Those who fall 
 in battle only swell the triumph of the victor, and every one over- 
 come increases his pride. To preserve one's self for a good busi- 
 ness is wiser than to be killed for it, and a living witness to the 
 truth is of more value than the ashes of a thousand dead ones. Do 
 not forget that you stand in the midst of life, and of earthly human
 
 374 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 things as they are. Bring the spirit down into this life, but do not 
 wish in vain to bring this life up to the spirit. The soil of man is 
 this earth ; do not wish to place him upon the pillar of Simeon 
 Stylites. Whoever will lift men up above their nature is only a 
 fanatic. The lifting up by the fanatic, however, will always be like 
 the great crusade of the children to the grave of the saints. They 
 are scattered as chaff in the wind. 
 
 " Fire testifies the presence of wind. With the flame of fanati- 
 cism you may make evident a storm ; but the storms pass away 
 over the heads of men, the flame dies out, and what follows is still- 
 ness and the old night. 
 
 " It is easier to reach a great aim, than, when it has been reached, 
 to stand by it. To the former only courage is needed ; to the latter, 
 self-control. When you have done a great thing, then come those 
 who desire of you a greater, and require that which lies beyond 
 your aim and for which your time is not ripe. With the reproaches 
 of cowardice and incompleteness they will spur you on to strive for 
 the unattainable ; and this struggle will deprive you of that which 
 you have attained. 
 
 "Therefore stand fast by your judgment. Do not take from man 
 his faith in the ruling, omnipotent God, and his purest revelation 
 in Christ and in Christ's Word. Do not take from him his faith : 
 faith places there the petals of the flower whose fragrance is the 
 love of God, which alone sanctifies us. But give to man a new 
 priesthood, that for which the human soul is itself calling. 
 Only unclasp from the reason the goading girdle of illusion ; loose 
 the screws of inconsistency under which the growth of his spirit is 
 restrained, and arouse him to reflection, in order that his soul-life no 
 longer endure the violence of the strait-jacket about his spirit." 
 
 Brother Martin had come to this place in the book of the first 
 reformer who here, in such detached thoughts, near a mass of 
 other utterances taken from the writings of the ancients and 
 of his own time, had laid down an entire policy of a reformation, 
 when, looking up, he saw two forms approaching him from the city : 
 a young man, a female form, whom a servant followed at some dis- 
 tance. They came nearer ; they had already taken into their view 
 the group resting at the well, when Brother Martin recognized them. 
 He sprang up and went briskly to meet them. 
 
 "Count Kgino," he exclaimed, joyously, "and you, noble lady,
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 375 
 
 receive my salutations ! What joy to see you well preserved before 
 me!" 
 
 "And we have the same joy to be, at last, able to conduct you into 
 the good city of Sienna," said Egino, shaking the hand of his coun- 
 tryman. "We have been awaiting you here in the inn for two days, 
 since we have fortunately arrived here and have let Duke Alfonso 
 continue his journey. 
 
 "You also came walking this way for my sake ? " asked Brother 
 Martin. " Then I can bless Rome for one thing, that it gives to me 
 a noble friend to take home with me ! " 
 
 During these remarks Corradina had taken some steps forward, 
 and had observed Martin's traveling companion still lying quiet upon 
 the sod. He turned to her his face, stared at her awhile, then he 
 said : 
 
 " Ah ! is it you you ? And I know him, there, too ! " 
 
 After a pause he continued in a whisper : 
 
 , " I have made way with him, entirely made way with him ! It is 
 still a good thing, now, that I have made way with him. Is it not ? 
 The monk there has absolved me. Now, since Irmgard is dead, it is 
 a good thing that he had his share. He never moved any more ; 
 didn't you notice that ? " 
 
 Corradina shrank back before the ugly man, who seemed to be 
 able to do nothing but brood over his murder. Brother Martin 
 stepped near him, and said : 
 
 " You know him ; he is now our traveling companion. You must 
 also receive him in that capacity, Countess, the poor Uncle 
 
 T^ " 
 
 Kraps 
 
 "Oh certainly! " she put in ; "we are thankful to you for thinking 
 of him." 
 
 " I helped bury Irmgard at the Campo Santo," continued Martin, 
 " and her uncle then followed me, as if involuntarily. We have to- 
 gether bought a donkey, and then started together upon our pil- 
 grimage." 
 
 " This poor man is to me as a fortune to which you lead me^ 
 Brother Martin," said Egino. "What consolation it will be for me 
 that I can care for his future, you may feel with me." 
 
 " But there is also Gotz, your trusty follower," exclaimed Brother 
 Martin, espying the servant following Egino. 
 
 " I owe that to Callisto, my brave friend. He has brought it about 
 that Gotz might be allowed to leave the city ; and since Callisto's
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 
 
 gardener, whom we found at Baccano, knew that we had turned 
 toward Sienna, Gotz has overtaken us here yesterday, and upon my 
 good steed at that." 
 
 During this they had betaken themselves to the shade of the well. 
 Egino and Corradina seated themselves upon the stone bench to 
 rest. 
 
 " So we can go farther, then, to-morrow, with good courage," said 
 Brother Martin, standing before them, " homeward, over the Alps. 
 If we leave a dear soul behind us, let us comfort ourselves that she 
 ever lives in our thoughts, and thus remains with us and goes with 
 us. The happiness of the future should build itself now upon such 
 an offering. That is the law of life. Every happiness demands its 
 price, which we must pay for it ; now a lighter one, now one more 
 weighty. The lighter spirit comes from an easier purchase ; from the 
 more earnest and profound, a harder one is required." 
 
 "That is so," responded Egino; "and you, Brother Martin, can 
 utter that from the depths of your own soul ; for Rome has also 
 demanded of you a sacrifice." 
 
 " Yes, a great one : the inner peace with which I came ; the faithful 
 simplicity of my German nature ; and it has given one in its place, 
 the urgent impulse to the struggle for truth and the pure Word of 
 God. I came in the light gown of a mendicant monk, and go home 
 laden with the heavy armor of a warrior for Christ, with your book 
 in my hand, noble lady, as a sharp, victorious sword ! " 
 
 She was silent. Egino then arose. 
 
 " Let us go back to prepare ourselves for our departure at the 
 earliest hour to-morrow," he said. 
 
 But Corradina laid her hand upon his and interrupted him, turning 
 to Brother Martin : 
 
 " Do you know you have still a promise to us to redeem ? You 
 were to give to our betrothal the consecration of a priest, and, in the 
 pressure of events, you have omitted it. It is, indeed, the custom 
 that one also blesses betrothals ; and I wish it, because I follow your 
 young friend alone into his land." 
 
 Brother Martin looked at her awhile in silence, then he an- 
 swered : 
 
 " God dwells as well under the shady roof of this treetop, as in a 
 church of stone. Let yourselves, also, be immediately blessed here 
 in his presence with the purest intentions and the best emotion 
 which lies in your souls. Is it not written in your own book, in that
 
 LUTHER IN ROME. 377 
 
 of your grandfather, ' Give to each one as his priest the higher man 
 in himself ' ? Well, then, call upon this priest in yourselves and let 
 him bless your united hands ; let him pronounce over you the word 
 that binds you forever. It will be a more spiritual, a more holy act 
 than I, the weak, sinful cloister-brother, can make of it with holy 
 water and formulae of prayer." 
 
 He placed their hands together, and while each became absorbed 
 in the glance of the other, he added with a mournful smile: 
 
 "See, that is the first act of the new priesthood which we will 
 give the world. I, the monk, can do nothing more than bless it, 
 give testimony to it. And now away to our native land, to 
 Wittenberg."
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
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