had no remedies to oppose to the grinding foe in his
foot but patience and a bandage of coarse hemp. But such is mankind
that this great general, who had at his disposal the lives of thousands
of his fellow-creatures, could not control his own desires; for near
him stood a table on which among other things was a bottle of wine and
a large goblet partly filled, to which he betook himself from time to
time. The contents of the 'safe-conduct' did not seem to afford him
much consolation, for he threw it angrily on the table.

'That is my last weapon,' he said to one of the officers. 'The town
must and shall be mine, this week, this very day, and without the help
of a scoundrel, too!'

'Your excellency!' said the attendant physician warningly, as he saw
the general's gaze turn again towards the goblet.

'Ah, doctor,' said the marshal peevishly; 'take my word for it, it was
not the wine, but those six months in the damp dungeon at Ingolstadt
that gave me the gout. Bring that youth forward.'

Conrad trembled as he was led before the general, though that officer
looked, to his boyish eyes, more like a woman than a stalwart
fighting-man. His tall body was enveloped in a great, shaggy fur coat
right down to the feet, and a white nightcap covered his head. Nothing
but the moustache on the pale face indicated the warlike calling of the
man who now addressed Conrad.

[Illustration: Nothing but the mustache on the pale face indicated the
warlike calling of the man who now addressed Conrad.]

'How many people have come to live in your town on account of the
siege?'

'Oh, they might be somewhere in the sixties,' replied Conrad, carefully
conformable to truth.

'Are you starving in Freiberg?'

'My mother and her cat sometimes, nobody else. And then that is all my
stepfather's fault, because he will keep the bread cupboard locked up.'

'Do the citizens and soldiers hold together still? Are they not
getting down-hearted?'

'Oh, well, at first there were a few squabbles. The Herr Burgomaster
had a tiff with the Herr Commandant, but now they are just like
brothers; all their quarrels are over, and they are in first-rate
spirits.'

'Can you tell me how many men there are left in Freiberg capable of
bearing arms?'

'Why, gracious sir,' said Conrad, 'it isn't only the men! Everybody
that's got arms and legs does a bit of fighting. And there are nearly
sixty thousand of us. Why, only yesterday evening the miller's