All of them willingly and unanimously swore to punish their mighty chiefs for their crimes—as well those notorious as those unknown to the world. When they passed their sentence, there was no mercy for the condemned, were he their own brother. Every one was bound to fulfil the doom, either by open force or stratagem.
One of the masked men approached the throne, and, lifting up his sword before the book of the order, said; "Awful judges! Our suspicion was not ground less, and now is confirmed by proofs. He who bears the name of Conrad Wallenrod, is not Wallenrod. Who he really is, we do not know as yet. All that we know of him is, that about twelve years ago he came, nobody knows whence, to the provinces bordering upon the Rhine. When the Count Wallenrod went to
