The Clook-Face of Sohaumburg.

Manawatu Herald, 17 December 1898, Page 2

The Clook-Face of Sohaumburg.

♦ The bands of the clock had gone, and in their place there had been bt.l'.ed two bright blades, which gleamed and glittered in the sunbeam*, but the order of them was reversed, for the longer was now the hour v and the shorter the minute hanl, and it was plain to see that this latter at each hourly revolution wou d just scratch the throat of Goetz with it 3 point. But the long hour-hand, which wag now pointing to the five, would after seven hours, strike his neck, and be driven by the engine witbin the clock through flesh and bone until the head dropped into the moat beneath. As the great bell boomed out five strokes, a mounted man at-arms rode over the quickly lowered drawbridge and under the raised portcullis, bearing a letter to Diedrich of Altenau, and in this letter Count Conrad said briefly : — 11 Ye have seen how your leader looks down on you from his high place. We here will march out in an hour's time on the way to HamplD, taking only our arms with U3 The rest we will leave for you , till we come again to take account , for it. But one of us remains be- , - hind. If none of you enter tho t ]

castle till thn last stroke of twelve, ho clock will atop at that moment, and you can gn in and release your eader and do what you will with the castle and all that there is in it ; bat if one man crosses the drawbridge before then, or if any seek to hinder •is on our way, he who remain* nnhind will break the governing fart f the clock, and then you shall Bee he blades fly round swiftly, and the head of Goetz shall be in the most before you can save him ; and even if that should fail, he who ia ltfc will drive a dagger into his hear*. Let your answer come back within an hour. " Conrad of Schaumkbbs. m - Under this was written in Qoei^Bk own hand :— ' *" " L?t the people go, and save me. Tha plunder of the castle will be rich enough for us. What do we want with their lives ? See that the serfa do not kill any, for if they do I shall surely die, and you will be-r-as I phail— a body without a head." D : rliich called some of hisfellowj about him, and explained this letftflji to thftn, and as the Freelances, onlikf» iha serfs, fought for plunder rathor than revenge, it was agreed that the terms should be granted. So tha messenger took back the answer, and half an hoar later the drawbridge fell, and the portcullis went up, and the garrison of Schanmburg with Count Oonrad at its head, and with his Countess by his Bide, came forth in two lines of hor?e and foot, with the women and! child ivn between them. When the se' fj saw them they raised loud cries of iagp, and were for falling upon th?m and making an end of them at one. But the Freelances rode along their front, and beat them back ; and the men of the garrison, borse and fuofc, laughed as they saw this, f>r they knew that without the FreeC lances the half-armed peasants coafd do nothing against them. 1 The road to Hamoln lay along the river bank to the eastward, and from his window in the clock-face QoeUt of tha Iron Hand could watch the loug procession winding slowly round) the hill-spurs and in and oat' of the forest patches, on its slow way towards the distant towers of Hameln. He could also look down, and see his own men and the serf bands gradually drawing in closer, waiting f>r the hour of plunder to strike. Ha could see that there was constant strife among them, and that his own men were beating the serfs back, and being in turn thrust forward by them. Meanwhil' the great clock ticked on with its iron monotony. He saw th? short hind on the great face climb up towards him, then ho lost eight of i ho end, and then be felt its point cutting slowly into the skin of his neck over his windpipe. Then, just above him, seven strokes on the great bell boomed out striking his deafened ears like the very no l es of doom. (To be Continued.)