At the concluding words, all the lights were at once extinguished with a hissing noise.  Philipson felt once more the grasp of the hands of the officials, to which he resigned himself as the safest course.  He was gently prostrated on his pallet-bed, and transported back to the place from which he had been advanced to the foot of the altar.  The cordage was again applied to the platform, and Philipson was sensible that his couch rose with him for a few moments, until a slight shock apprised him that he was again brought to a level with the floor of the chamber in which he had been lodged on the preceding night, or rather morning.

[Meanwhile Arthur Philipson proceeds along the banks of the Rhine, and in his road falls in with a damsel, who proves to be Annette, the attendant of Anne of Geierstein.  By the former he is conducted to the castle of Arnheim, where he has an interview with Anne, where she, in some measure, explains the cause of her late mysterious appearances, to convince him that the only witchery she possesses is that of female charms and kindness:  we give her solution of the mystery:]

“Signior Arthur Philipson,” she proceeded, “it is true my grandfather, by the mother’s side, Baron Herman of Arnheim, was a man of great knowledge in abstruse sciences.  He was also a presiding judge of a tribunal of which you must have heard, called the Holy Vehme.  One night a stranger, closely pursued by the agents of that body, which (crossing herself) it is not safe even to name, arrived at the castle and craved his protection, and the rights of hospitality.  My grandfather, finding the advance which the stranger had made to the rank of Adept, gave him his protection, and became bail to deliver him to answer the charge against him, for a year and a day, which delay he was, it seems, entitled to require on his behalf.  They studied together during that term, and pushed their researches into the mysteries of nature, as far, in all probability, as men have the power of urging them.  When the fatal day drew nigh on which the guest must part from his host, he asked permission to bring his daughter to the castle, that they might exchange a last farewell.  She was introduced with much secrecy, and after some days, finding that her father’s fate was so uncertain, the Baron, with the sage’s consent, agreed to give the forlorn maiden refuge in his castle, hoping to obtain from her some additional information concerning the languages and the wisdom of the East.  Danischemend, her father, left this castle, to go to render himself up to the Vehmegericht at Fulda.  The result is unknown; perhaps he was saved by Baron Arnheim’s testimony, perhaps he was given up to the steel and the cord.  On such matters, who dare speak?