At the opening of the second volume, the two Englishmen leave the
deputation for La Ferette, where, on their arrival, we are made
acquainted with the ferocious governor, Archibald Von Hagenbach,
Kilian, his fac-totum, and Steinernherz, his executioner, who has
already cut off the heads of eight men, each at a single blow, and is
to receive a patent of nobility, as soon as he has performed the same
office for the ninth. The English travellers fall into the hands of
these notable persons, and are saved from death, after a succession of
the narrowest escapes, owing to a general rising of the town, and the
death of the cruel governor. In these dangers, both father and son are
saved by the apparently supernatural interference of Anne.
The elder Philipson proceeds on his journey, and at an inn in Alsace,
meets with the following extraordinary adventure, the whole of which
is wrought up with great effect:]
He had been in bed about an hour, and sleep had not yet approached his
couch, when he felt that the pallet on which he lay was sinking below
him, and that he was in the act of descending along with it he knew
not whither. The sound of ropes and pullies was also indistinctly
heard, though every caution had been taken to make them run smooth;
and the traveller, by feeling around him, became sensible that he and
the bed on which he lay had been spread upon a large trapdoor, which
was capable of being let down into the vaults, or apartments beneath.
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