Besides, I
cannot be married with any satisfaction, or really enjoy the greatest
festival of my life, until my poor native city is freed from the
domination of the devil who now lacerates her with his infernal claws.
When good old Munster has found peace and safety I will seek the
consummation of my own domestic happiness.'

'Thou hast a good faith, my son,' cried Oberstein, pleased with the
self-denial of the youth.

By this time they stood before the general's tent, when they were met
by Fabricius holding by the hand the amiable and sweetly smiling Clara,
already modestly clad in the dress of her sex.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Yielding to the voice of clemency, the worthy Oberstein sent messengers
into the city to admonish them to surrender and save the lives of the
starving people; but the answer which orator Rothman gave in the
presence of the king, was, like the preceding one, the sending back of
the messengers with a paraphrase of the passage in the prophet Daniel
of the four ferocious beasts, in the description of which, he said, the
bishop might easily learn to know himself.

The last of mercy's sands had finally run, and the next night was
determined on for the attack. It was on the 13th of June, 1533, an hour
before midnight, that Hanslein, in perfect silence, led five hundred
volunteers through the shallow place in the ditch and thence upon the
walls. The sleeping sentinels were cut down, and the detachment reached
the little gate without hindrance. This was broken down and the
soldiers rushed into the city. The alarm was, however, now given. The
armed burghers, who had hastily collected, beat back the last of the
entering troops, closed, and occupied the gate, and then attacked with
redoubled rage those who had already entered. An hour and a half they
endured the bloody onslaught in the dark, until Hanslein with the rest
of his band broke through the nearest weakly guarded gate. The
commander in chief, guided by Alf, waited for this event with the main
force; and, as the gate was burst open from within and its wings flew
asunder, the bishop's troops poured with loud cries into the city. The
victory was not, however, yet won. Each footstep in advance was at the
expense of much blood of the half starved fanatics; and when finally
Oberstein with resistless power forced them back, they retired only
towards the market-place at St. Lambert's church; there once more to
make a stan