Although none of the parties liked the arrangements Oberstleutnant Reishach had proposed, as each secretly thought he had the correct answer, they all agreed it was a reasonable compromise. A ZugsKorporale and a platoon of men were summoned from the camp and Klacel confined and guarded in a small stock room. Soldiers patrolled constantly outside the window, outside the door and all along the basement corridor.

"Prisoners in the Bastille were treated better than this," Brother Matthew complained. "My rooms were searched by Darmstaedter's thugs, they confiscated several of my manuscripts and even took away some of my books." At which Mendel groaned, as his friend was not very discrete in his writing or his reading. In the wrong hands, much of what Brother Matthew said could be construed as treasonous.

When he returned home that evening, after spending a lot longer than he should in the laboratory of the glass cutter Rosenstrauch, Brother Gregory and been assaulted by his fellow monks who all wanted to bring him up to date on the exciting events of the day.

"Brother Matthew is under arrest," Brother Joseph had told him, and also gone on to give him most of the details. "It's only a matter of time. They sound as if they have a strong case against him; who else can it be?"

That was the question on most people's minds. No matter how much they may have liked Brother Matthew, the evidence against him was overwhelming. Even his closest friends, including the Abbot, were beginning to think that this was the end of the troubled monk. This time he had gone too far.

When he had finally eaten, Brother Gregory had gone to the Abbot and asked permission to see the prisoner. Napp had been delighted and had taken him to the stock room personally and made sure that the guards knew to let him through. "Talk to him, Brother Gregory," the Abbot has said. "Try to find out what made him do it. Perhaps there is some way we can get the Bishop to punish him without turning him over to the police or the army."

"But I didn't do it," Brother Matthew said over and over again as he talked with Brother Gregory. "You know me, I would certainly tell you if I had done anything like this. But you also know that I would never do anything like this. How long have you known me - 30 years? - in all that time have you ever known me take physical revenge, even on Brother Timothy?"

To which Brother Gregory had to agree, these actions were so unlike his friend that it did not make sense. "Who is going to defend you at the tribunal?" he asked.

"Prior Sembera," was the reply. "He is a good man, but he already thinks I am guilty. He has been helping Hauptmann Steefel collect statements from the soldiers and others, but what can they say, or what can Sembera do? No one really saw anything, and I'm the only one who was both here at the monastery at time of the fire, and had the motive to start it."

"I heard that other damage was done," Mendel said, looking for other facts.

"Yes, a stupid chunk of ugly glass was smashed on the tiles of the fireplace. They are calling it an act of petty vandalism."

"Was anything else taken or damaged?"

"No, just the fire on the desk and the breaking of the glass."

"But there must have been money, silver, other valuable items in the room; nothing else was touched?"

"So it seems."

At which point, having nothing else to say, Brother Gregory took his leave. He walked back along the basement corridors and up to his room in a very troubled state of mind. A massive conflict loomed; either his friend was a silly and petty saboteur and arsonist, the way the evidence pointed, or someone else had gone to a lot of trouble to make it look that way. Which was it?