1 VOL. XI. THE J I,M E S . An Independent Family Nenspnpcr, IS PUBLISHED BVEHT TBESDAT BT- F MORTIMER & CO. Subscription Price. Within the County, '. ;....! 25 Out of the County, Including postage, " " " six mouths " Invariably In Advance I on inoiini,.. t 1 f0 85 S-Advertising rates furnished upon appli cation. A SIEGE OF OLDEN TIMES. rpilia MORNING, Relnbold Dort, X the money changer, was found dead In his bed. "Yesterday, Helena Hexht, the fair young wife of Peter Hexht, the clothier, in the market place ; was taken from him." " Old Abraham, the apothecary of the Elephant, is gone too." "And the pretty babe of Martha Oratz n i " Shame I shame I "cried twenty voices in according chorus, and some frowned their discontent, and some idly shook their clenched hands above their heads. " Ye are bold citizens to cry thus on death's works," said a young man, who, leaning against a door, listened with a thoughtful face to the traglo gossip of the talkers. " Death's works I" exclaimed one of the knot ; " marry, yes death and the Governor." , , " And the Governor y A money ringer of three-score and odd, sleeps in. death ; a young wife defies the doctors ; the man of rhubarbs finds all physio vain ; a baby died teething ; a beggar of , eighty needs at last a grave ; and all these deeds," cried the young man with a contemptuous laugh, "ye lay upon the Governor." "And on none but him," replied on6 of the crowd ; and a shout from his fel lows approved his answer. " Oh' none but him. There is no hope of relief for the city." "How know you that," calmly asked the youth. "I I have no hope," said the man doggedly. " Hap'plly, Simon Holzkopt, though, as, I believe, the quickest tailor of your quarter; the safety of the city rests not upon you. It may be saved, though you have lost all hope." , " And we are to behold our wives arid children fall down dead before our faces I cried Simon ; " hear ye that my mas ters I We are to starve, and starve in silence, too." " The Governor, I doubt not," cried another of the crowd, " finds patience in his larder." " I saw him yesterday," said a third, " and it made my blood boil, so sleek and fat he looked. Ha I Simon, I wish that you and I,and every honest body among us, had no more than a lark for every capon swallowed by his governorship since the siege ; only one mouthful of sour wine for every quart he has taken of the best Rhenish." " Ay, ay," cried the tailor, and he clutched his jerkin, " pur clothes would hang with better credit to the makers, eh Master Caspar V fori think I have seen the day when your feathers have been finer, ay, and have 6hone upon plumper limbs. That's hardly the leg of Martinmas last;" and Simon Holz kopf glanced askant at the attenuated figure of the young man, who had braved the displeasure of his fellow townsmen by advocating the policy, of the determined Governor. ' " Never heed the leg, Simon," said Caspar, civilly; "it may dwindle to a rush, 9tillmy heart shall not be too heavy for it." " And is there no hope of capitula tion y Will the Governor not relent V" asked more than one of the mob. " Another week only another week, 'tis said, he purposes to keep the enemy out. If, by that time, no succor comes "It matters not," cried an' old man, "what banner floats uron our walls since death death will be at all our hearths." " Men !" exclaimed Simon Holzkonf. ' shall we endure this y Shall we drop ISTEAV; BLQOMFIELD, IJ.A., TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1877. into our graves, while the pampered Governor" , "Down with the tyrant 1" shouted the mob, and Simon,' animated by the cry, proceeded in Ills oration. " While the pampered Governor feasts upon the best, what cares he for our shrle king bables,our weeping wivesy He, gorged with the fat of the earth, drunk with the wine of " ' " Peace, fool!" cried Caspar, and, at his indignant voice, the eloquent tailor stood suddenly silently, with open mouth ; " peace-thls is no hour to bab ble falsehood foolish at any time, most base and wicked at a time like this. We have all suffered all must suffer ; not one throughout the city, but has felt the fierceness of the war. - In every place has hunger had its victims." ; " The nuns of St. Ursula have eaten their gray iarrot," ,, exclaimed Hans Potts, an idle M ag, known to many of the mob ; and while some laughed at the sally, some, condemning it, called out for Caspar to proceed. . , " Not one among us," cried the yoking man, " hath tared more naruiy tuan uio Governor. You you Simon Holzkopf who know every dish upon the Govern or's table, every flask of wine in the Governor's cellar, toll me the dainty that he fed on yesterday. You cannot guess no; it is too rich, too costly, for. your simple apprehension; you cannot dream of such a rarity I Fellow towns men!" and young Caspar turned for a moment from the abashed Simon to the still increasing crowd; "You remem ber the holyday at Easter last y The Governor rode through our city, and feasted with the merchants at their hall. The horse he sat upon a king might have backed a beautiful, a glorious thing a creature that scarcely touched the earth an animal of perfect frame and blood. You all remember how your eyes were fixed upon it, and the brute, as conscious of Its beauty, pranced to your shouts. Yesterday, the Governor dined off that horse ; with the meanest of his men, he drew lots for a choice morsel of that noble Bteed." " A burgomaster's wife," cried Hans Potts, " has made a roast of her monkey. Hard times, my masters hen the siege sends our best friends to the spit !" " Silence, hounds IV exclaimed an old man. " Is this an hour to fling about your sorry Jests, when those we love are dropping dead around us V Peace, mur murer ! Speak you truly, Caspar V Is the garrison so straitened y" " Go to the walls ask not of me,", re plied the youth ; " go, and behold the sight I've quitted ; if that convince ye not, hang up the Governor and call in the foe." "What sight y what sight V" roared the mob. . ,,. " Famine feeding on a thousand men. Burly soldiers, shrunk almost to skele tons; their flashing, hopeful eyes deep set, and flickering with a horrid glare ; their manly cheeks pinched in with want; their hearty, jocund voice sunk into a hoarse whisper ; the gallant bear ing changed to slow decrepitude ; their looks of victory to the blank stare of coming death." ." Horrible 1 horrible ! down with the governor J" exclaimed the crowd. " They suffer this, but suffer nobly," cried Caspar ; " not a murmur, nbt. a look of treason to the storn will of Him who rules them. Martyrs to the glory of their arms,they stand resolved rcome what, will, they have sworn with' the Governor to hold the citadel another week." " Glory 1 a pretty word, faith. Shall we dry our wives' eyes with it I Will it fill our children's bellies V" cried one of the crowd. , " I trow they've something more toothsome than glory for supper," said a second, " or does the Governor's lady and his delicate daughter feed off the in sipid dish y If so, 'twill spoil their pret ty looks 1" A derisive shout followed this remark, and again the crowd called for vengeance on the Governor. "Let's to the citadel.!" cried fifty voices, and " to the citadel 1" hallooed the mob. With the words, the crowd rushed onward, but soon halted in their course. Many paused, as they avowed,' tore consider their determination ; the' great er part 'slunk ' home; and when, at length,' , the discontented townsmen halted at the outer gate, few were to be seen save the half dozen immediate par tlzans and admirers Of Simon Holzkopf and Hans Potts. Whether they ' de manded Instant audience of the Gov ernor, at the time surrounded by his family, gnzlng wistfully from the walla for expected succor; or whether, con tented with his stern answer just ren dered to the eivlo authorities then in garrison, they held their peace, the archives of the city give no bote. Quit ting the discontented, self-subdued,lcpu-ties, let tts return to the hero of our story, Caspar Brandt. "And the good widow, Caspar?" asked the old man who had rebuked the wit 6f Hans Potts, and who, on the flight of the crowd, walked slowly to-' ward the marketplace with the youth ; " these are sorry times for necessities like here ; how fares she ' 1 Caspar answered not strove with manly strength to repress the emotion ; but a deep groan burst from his lips he paused, and quivered like a struck reed. " Caspar Caspar Brandt!" cried the old man, and he caught the youth in his anus, " Blessed Virgin, whatallsthe boyy' "Nothing nothing; a sudden fuint ness nothing more;" and Caspar, with a sickly smile, pressed tne old man's hand. , , " By all the saints, your hands burns like heated stone. Come come to my house. I have yet half a cup of wine, that, for the love of old times, for the grateful thoughts I liear your mother, kind in the days of misery and death to me and mine, shall be spared you. Tell me, how fares the widow y" " Sick, Master Martin, sickt almost to death," answered Caspar. "For two months she has kept her chamber for two months has been almost helpless. Still her state brings this comfort with it; she knows not the extreme misery of the town knows not the bitter suffer ings of her friends and neighbors." "And her wants, Caspar y Alas," cried the old man, "affliction has made me selfish steeled my heart to old ac quaintance, else I had sought you long Bince. Now, Heaven help me, I can do nothing. Her wants how are they supplied y" " She needs but little, of the simplest kind, and that, Heaven be thanked I I have obtained, and may still obtain for her. She will die she cannot wrestle with the sickness that consumes her; she wllldiel" repeated the young man in a hollow, hopeless voice, and big tears started from his eyes; "but not with famine ;" and as he spoke, the youth clenched his hand and trod the earth with more strength. " Nay, her years give everything to hope," said Martin. "At little more than seventeen ah me I it seems but yesterday she was your mother. And still she has kept her youthful face still, in looks, has seemed more than your elder sister." " Ay, Master Martin, ay. God pardon me!" exclaimed the youth, and the tears poured anon down his cheeks. "God pardon me, and make me humble. But now now I cannot think of losing her, and pray for meekness." ' " Hope should be the young man's staff as It is the old man's crutch," said Martin. " You will not lose her ; trust me, no ; the present troubles past, all will be well again. Come in and get a half a cup of poor wine," said Martin, lower ing his voice as he passed a passenger, who paused a moment, and leered with the malice of keen want at the old man's talking too foldly of a priceless luxury ; "let us good Caspar, drink to better times. A half cup boy, a poor half cup," and the old man sighed, as he paused at his threshold. Drawing a key from his pocket, he unlocked the door, and led the way into a house, where once comfort and heaped plenty gave a constant welcome. " Sit down, Caspar, your father has sat in that chair, when the roof quaked with the laughter of fifty throats when fortune herself served at the hearth and seemed my handmaid. Well, well, the hearth is quenched now ; the old, old faces are passed 'like morning shadows ; the sweet, constant voices are heard but in my dreams',' and I sit at my cold fireside, an , old, ' gray-headed solitary man. ' But come boy, the wine ;" and Martin took a 'small flask from a shelf. " What stirs you ?" asked the old man, seeing Cas par start. " Your pardon, Master Martin is not tlint bread t" and Caspar pointed to a small loaf by the flask on the shelf; nt the same moment, a deep blush crim soned the young man's face, and he sat as though detected in act of shame. Martin took the loaf, and, gazing in Caspar's face, a tear shone in the old man's eye, and his voice trembled as he spoko. "It is so, lady God help you ! it is so! "Forgive me, pray, forgive me!" stammered Casper. "I have another," said Martin; " your mother Was playmate of Margaret, my own bright girl tended her in sicknes would, with the love of early girlhood, watch her in death : I tell you, boy, I have another," cried the old man with vehemence; " take it, and God increase it to youl" " Never ! I am not that sordid, selfish wretch, to rob old age," cried Casper, and he sought to reach the door. " I tell you, boy, I have another," ex claimed Martin ; " You hear y another," and he placed himself before the youth. " Where is it 1" asked Caspar ; " make me see it ; and so bitterly has the time wrung us, that, for her sake, I will I must despoil you." " The loaf is 'tis locked up the key is in my chamber, I have wine have feasted twice to-day," said Martin ; but Caspar mournfully shook his head, and hurriedly embracing the old man, at tempted to depart. " You do not quit me thus," cried Martin, holding the youth. " Heaven forgive me I I knew not that things had gone so hardly with you. Hear me; to-morrow I have anew supply a friend,an old friend has prom ised me. If, boy, you would see your mother live, cast not away her life upon an idle form. Caspar Brandt, in the name of your dead father; whose spirit at this moment lingers at this hearth, share this with your father's friend." Saying this, old Martin forced the loaf into Caspar's hands,and broke it. " Now, boy, get your home," said Martin, seat ing himself ; " bear my good wishes to your mother, and leave me to my sup per." Again Caspar embraced the old man, and swallowing a half-cupof wine forced upon him by the hospitable host for surely hospitality was in that broken bread, that meagre vintage hastened from the house. Martin, for the first time, tasted food that day, but he sat not' in solitude at his deserted fireside, for he ate his crust, and drank his humble draught, with the spirits of the dead gathered about his board ; and the dry bread became manna, and the wine a draught for saints. Caspar hurried to a distant quarter of the city, where, at the commencement of the siege, he had secured an asylum for his sick mother .where day and night, he had watched her sinking health. The rent of three small houses, bequeathed to her by her father, and frugally ap plied, had enabled the widow to support herself and child ; but since the war had closed about the city, all trade had ceased, debts were no longer paid, social obligations no longer respected or ac knowledged. It had been the chief care of Caspar to disguise from his mother the extent of the calamities that pressed around them ; and though deceived by filial tenderness, she knew not half the misery that threatened them half the horrors raging In the city she read with a mother's eye the haggard story writ ten in her son's face ; it was plain that he was sinking beneath the task of ad ministering to her comfort her repose. He had, on the day on which our story opens, been many hours from home, and the widow with a beating heart, and with a thousand thoughts of undefined danger busy in her brain, sat watching the declining rays of a spring sun. Every sound smote her. soul with disap pointment, for it was not Caspar's foot steps. There she sat, until suspense be came a torture ; until, with her over wrought fancy, she had filled her ckani ber with phantoms of terror ; until she was surrounded with a host of fears. " Caspar I Caspar y" she shrieked and sprang from her chair as the youth en tered the house. " Mother 1" exclaimed the boy, and in a moment he stood in the chamber, em, bracing his parent. . . " Now,. God be praised I'? cried the woman; "God be thanked, aud may my doubts, the fears of a widowed NO. 21. mother, meet forgiveness I Oh, this la a blessing !" and the widow again car- ressed her son. , , , .i . Mother, how is this y Why did you rise to-day, and what is here V and Cas par pointed to the widow's cloak, for the mother, worn with anxious watching, had resolved to seek her sou abroad. " You have stayed late, Caspar ; very late," said the widow,., evading an answer to his question, "very late.: What lias happened 'i What news from the walls '("' " We shall beat them yet, mother," said Caspar, with a forced smile ; " fear not, we shall have merry days. The Governor is strong in hope, we shall beat them yet.'? Alas I my boy, you are pale and weary, need rest and nourishment." "A little rest, mother; only a little rest," said Caspar, " for to-day I have fared nobly with our old friend, Martin, of the market-place. I have drank wine to-duy, mother ; and see here is bread for supper ;" and the boy placed a por tion of the loaf upon the table, and hastily quitted the room. Descending a staircase, he unclosed a door , which opened into a little stone-paved court ; a goat ran to him, and gamboled about him. ' Caspar, breaking the bread which he had received from Martin, gave it to the animal to eat. "Come what will," said the youth looking mournfully upon the feeding creature, " come what will you must not go supperless," and Caspar reserving only a small piece for himself, gave the remainder to the hungry goat. He then, with new looks of cheerful ness, returned to his mother. " Yes, Caspar," said the widow, "I feel that this misery will end ; it would be wicked to doubt it. Your love, your tenderness my brave boy, must find the recompense of happy days. Such virtue cannot pass away unknown and unre warded." "I am rewarded, ten times over-paid, dear mother; by your fond words your doting looks. There, you are better to day, I am sure, much better," said the son. " Let this hateful war once cease ; let these horrid tumults end ; this sick ening desolating want give place to old, familiar comforts, and you will be strong, be happy once again." ", I am happy, Caspar, believe it, pro foundly happy. But for these times of peril I had never known my son. Good gentle, and tender, I ever thought him ; but I had not known his full nobility of soul, his generous contempt of wrong,. his scorn of selfish times." " Mother!" cried the youth, blushing at the praise, and playfully placing his hand to her lips. As they sat embraced in each other's arms, the still young and beautiful face of the widow a face to which even sickness had added a soft and melancholy sweet ness, and the flushed, animated, manly countenance of the youth, presented a picture of the purest love, the holiest af fection, dignifying hearts; the love of mother for her child, the answering de votion of child to parent. Never was maternal tenderness more exquisitely manifest; never filial duty more devout ly paid. Thus they . sat, and Caspar, looking in his, mother's face, taught himself to hope for coming health; never had she looked so beautiful." " Let the war be ended,',' he thought, "and all will be well again." With those new hopes Caspar rose, and taking a small earthen vessel from the shelf, quitted the room. An hour more had elapsed since the goat bad , taken her scanty meal, and Caspar, was again about to descend the stairs that led into the court, when he was startled by a loud, quick knocking at the door. " Who knocks there ?" asked Caspar, his band upon the door bolt " Open the door, Caspar Brandt; we would speak with you,", answered a voice without. " We are sent by tho burgomaster ; honest men fear not the magistrate." At these words, Caspar drew the bolt and opened wide the door. Instantly the patge was tilled with the under of ficers of justice. "Caspar Brandt," said one of them, " you must come with us. " : ' . . ... ., m First tell me for what ". answered Caspar, drawing back. T . . . i I " That you shall know in proper sea son," said the officer ; " in the meantime you are our prisoner." - : t . " Prisoner 1 Impossible I With what