and whose conscience has been replaced by
an empty purse, to fill which is their one object in life. Their
general is their god, and they follow him or desert him just according
as he leads them to victory and plunder, or to defeat. They march from
country to country, selling their services to whichever side they think
will give them the richest booty. Swedes! I can assure you, there is
not a Swede left in the Swedish army, or, at all events, very few. The
men the great Gustavus Adolphus brought over the Baltic Sea are gone
long ago, and those who have taken their places will sell both soul and
body any day to the highest bidder.'

'Yes,' interrupted the apprentice, 'that's just what I say. The Swedes
are no more Swedes than I am; else how could I have understood the
oaths of the Swedish dragoon that fired at me to-day? He swore in good
round German, and it was one of the most wonderful oaths I ever heard.
He said'--

The journeyman sprang up hastily, and put his hand before the lad's
mouth. 'Silence!' he cried earnestly. 'Do not repeat the oath you
heard to any one. When a man has once heard a wicked thing, it sticks
in his memory for years. It is the good things we find so hard to
remember. But to return to the Swedes. Their anger against us is not
altogether without excuse. After our Elector had actually begged for
an alliance with them, to protect him against the Emperor's
tyranny,--after Gustavus Adolphus had fought for us Saxons, bled for
us, won battles for us,--the Elector deserted his new ally as suddenly
as he had joined him, just because fortune frowned on him in one or two
battles. He did more than desert him; he threw himself again into the
arms of the Emperor, whom he had good reason to know for his worst
enemy. For this ingratitude'--

'Come, come, young fellow!' cried the miner, frowning. 'I shall have
to serve you as you did the boy just now. What! You take on yourself
to blame our illustrious Elector and his court! Pray, do you get
better lessons in statesmanship over the glue-pot and vice than what
our Elector and his princely council can teach you? You are forgetting
that you live in the faithful mountain city of Freiberg--a city that is
proud of being loyal to its prince without any grumbling or asking why
and wherefore. "Fear God! honour the king! do right and fear no man!"
That's what the Bible says.'

'I will be prudent and hold my peace,' said the young journeyman
quie