"What creature is this?" inquired the Landrath, scandalised. "Why is he not put under restraint?"
"Because his condition is owing more to his misfortune than his fault," the pastor answered.
Herr Merckel thought it his duty to whisper an explanation to his superior.
"He is the poor father so much to be pitied," he said, with a mock pathetic air, "whose sad story I related to your _Hochwohlgeboren_."
At the same time he watched uneasily some Schrandeners, who seemed to be waiting for a signal to take the drunkard into custody.
"Have you nothing to say, Hackelberg?" asked the pastor.
"What should I have to say, Herr Pastor?" he lisped, beginning to cringe again, and drawing the lappets of his tattered coat over his naked breast.
"Not even against _him_?" and he pointed to Boleslav.
A glimmer of intelligence came into the dull, glazed eyes. He understood his cue. Old Merckel nodded at him encouragingly, and he began to play his favourite rôle. Floods of tears that the besotted inebriate can always command so easily, poured over his cheeks. He rubbed his wet face with his black hands, till it resembled some hideous mask.
"Poor fellow! poor outraged father!" crooned Herr Merckel, senior, wiping his own eyes.
"What is the meaning of this absurd farce?" asked Boleslav, with a scornful laugh. But his face had become visibly paler.
"Here we don't enact farces, but sit in judgment," answered the pastor.
Boleslav shrugged his shoulders. "I am pleased to hear it," he said, and there was a tremor in his voice.
The Schrandeners craned their necks to get a better view of the edifying scene, of which they now expected to be spectators. In the momentary calm that ensued, distant whoops and yells were heard from the crowds who filled the square, having stormed the inn in vain, and with the noise there seemed to mingle a woman's voice crying for succour.
What if it were Regina? But it was not possible that it could be she; and the idea vanished as quickly as it had flashed into his brain.
"My child, my poor wretched child!" howled the carpenter, who now found himself in more familiar waters.
"What have they done to your child, man?" asked the Landrath, who was not going to tolerate the conduct of affairs being taken out of his hands.