ning to
the executioner, he said, "Let me not be pestered with these men, but
perform your duty." On which his head was struck off at a single blow.

Wolfgang Scuch, and John Huglin, two worthy ministers, were burned, as
was Leonard Keyser, a student of the university of Wertembergh; and
George Carpenter, a Bavarian, was hanged for refusing to recant
protestantism.

The persecutions in Germany having subsided many years, again broke out
in 1630, on account of the war between the emperor and the king of
Sweden, for the latter was a protestant prince, and consequently the
protestants of Germany espoused his cause, which greatly exasperated the
emperor against them.

The imperialists having laid siege to the town of Passewalk, (which was
defended by the Swedes) took it by storm, and committed the most horrid
cruelties on the occasion. They pulled down the churches, burnt the
houses, pillaged the properties, massacred the ministers, put the
garrison to the sword, hanged the townsmen, ravished the women,
smothered the children, &c. &c.

A most bloody tragedy was transacted at Magdeburg, in the year 1631. The
generals Tilly and Pappenheim, having taken that protestant city by
storm, upwards of 20,000 persons, without distinction of rank, sex, or
age, were slain during the carnage, and 6,000 were drowned in attempting
to escape over the river Elbe. After this fury had subsided, the
remaining inhabitants were stripped naked, severely scourged, had their
ears cropped, and being yoked together like oxen were turned adrift.

The town of Hoxter was taken by the popish army, and all the inhabitants
as well as the garrison, were put to the sword; when the houses being
set on fire, the bodies were consumed in the flames.

At Griphenburg, when the imperial forces prevailed, they shut up the
senators in the senate-chamber, and surrounding it by lighted straw
suffocated them.

Franhendal surrendered upon articles of capitulation, yet the
inhabitants were as cruelly used as at other places, and at Heidelburg,
many were shut up in prison and starved.

The cruelties used by the imperial troops, under count Tilly in Saxony,
are thus enumerated.

Half strangling, and recovering the persons again repeatedly. Rolling
sharp wheels over the fingers and toes. Pinching the thumbs in a vice.
Forcing the most filthy things down the throat, by which many were
choked. Tying cords round the head so tight that the blood gushed out of
the eyes