Page:The German Novelists (Volume 3).djvu/78

 yielded, and obeyed its dictates, though the temptation was nothing greater than a crust of bread.

It was not exactly the meaning of the hard-hearted citizens of Antwerp to make him pay money, so much as to compel him to renounce all claims upon them. So that either the prayers he had ordered from the church at Bremen, or the citizens’ reluctance to pay any more for his prison-board, at length brought him a release. At the end of three months Frank left his prison, upon condition of quitting the city within four-and-twenty hours, and never returning to it. He then received a small sum of money to defray his expenses home; for the law had already seized upon his horse and baggage, to pay the proceedings against him, and for his board. With no other companion than a walking-stick, and with heavy heart, Frank humbly took his leave of the proud city, whose walls he had shortly before entered with such grand expectations. Reckless and dispirited he wandered on, without marking the road which he had taken. He asked no questions, saluted no one, and took notice of nothing, until excess of hunger and fatigue compelled him to seek out some place where he might relieve his wants. Many days he thus wandered on without any aim in view, and even ignorant that he had, instinctively, as it were, taken the right direction homewards. Suddenly he