restless character; and how people rumoured all sorts of
stories about him, which would certainly bring his wife and child into
misfortune and trouble by his dangerous mode of life.

Albert tried all means to console her and stop her tears; and so far
succeeded, as to enable her to answer his questions respecting the army
of the League.

"Ah! sir," she said, "terror and misery are our portion now-a-days! it
is just as if a wild huntsman were riding on the clouds, driving over
the country with his ghost hounds. They have overrun all the low
country, and now the whole force is gone to attack Tuebingen."

"So all the fortresses are in their hands?" said Albert, astonished:
"Hoellenstein, Schorndorf, Goeppingen, Teck, Urach--are they all taken?"

"All of them, I believe; a man from Schorndorf told me that the
confederates were in Hoellenstein, Schorndorf, and Goeppingen. But I can
tell you for certain about Teck and Urach, as we are only three or four
hours' distance from them." She then related that, on the 3rd of April,
the League's army advanced to Teck; one part of the infantry was posted
before one of the gates of the town, and had a parley with the garrison
about surrendering. Every one flocked to the spot to hear the summons,
and in the meantime the enemy scaled the other gate. But, in the castle
of Urach, there were four hundred ducal infantry, which the citizens
would not admit into the town when the enemy advanced. A battle took
place between them, in which the soldiers were forced into the market
place, where the commander was wounded by a ball, and afterwards run
through the body by a halbert; the town then surrendered to the League.
"It is no wonder," said the fifer of Hardt's wife, as she concluded her
narration, "that they take all the towns and castles; for they have
long falconets and bombarding pieces which shoot balls as large as my
head, breaking down walls and upsetting towers."

Albert could easily foresee from this information, that the journey
from Hardt to Lichtenstein would not be less dangerous, than that which
he had already performed over the Alb, for he knew that he would be
obliged to pass directly between Urach and Tuebingen. But, as the army
of the League had been withdrawn from Urach several days back, and the
siege of Tuebingen necessarily required a large force, he might hope
there was no post of any importance occupied by the enemy, in the
country through which he would have to trav