Scoffingly he
asks Jan: 'Art thou a king?' Simple, yet endlessly deep the reply:
'Art thou a bishop?' Both alike false to their callings--as father of
men and shepherd of souls. Yet the one cold, self-seeking sceptic,
the other ignorant, passionate, fanatic idealist. 'Why hast thou
destroyed the town and _my_ folk?' 'Priest, I have not destroyed one
little maid of _thine_. Thou hast again thy town, and I can repay
thee a hundredfold.' The bishop demands with much curiosity how this
miserable captive can possibly repay him. 'I know we must die, and
die terribly, yet before we die, shut us up in an iron cage, and send
us round through the land, charge the curious folk a few pence to see
us, and thou wilt soon gather together all thy heart's desire.' The
jest is grim, but the king of Sion has the advantage of his grace
the bishop. Then follows torture, but there is little to extract,
for the king still holds himself an instrument sent by God--though
it were for the punishment of the world. Sentence is read on these
men--placed in an iron cage they shall be shown round the bishop's
diocese, a terrible warning to his subjects, and then brought back
to Muenster; there with glowing pincers their flesh shall be torn
from the bones, till the death-stroke be given with red-hot dagger
in throat and heart.
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