me, stand by me,
help me to send this rabble about their business! I only married the
old blind woman because she owned this house, and now that there's no
getting out of the bargain they are tearing my nest to pieces before my
very eyes. Come, my dear neighbour, let us hasten at once to the
burgomaster. You are a man of influence in the city, and your request
added to mine will, even now, soon put a stop to this shocking
business.'

'Our trouble would be all in vain,' replied Lowe quietly. 'These
buildings are being pulled down by order of the burgomaster himself and
of the town council; and quite right too, although I suffer a serious
loss by it. "Private rights must always give place to public
necessities." I was the first man to lay hands on my own house, and
that makes it less hard for me to bear.'

In his heart Juechziger cursed the good man for a fool, and turned away
from him in a rage. 'If only Richzenhayn were not the acting
burgomaster,' he said to himself. 'If Herr Jonas Schoenleben were only
at the head of affairs, he would be certain to listen to me. The
cowardly blockheads! There is not a single Swedish plume to be seen
round the whole horizon, and yet they must needs begin pulling down
houses. But I will have ample compensation, or the whole town shall
smart for it.'

'My poor, poor mother,' thought Conrad sorrowfully, as he watched the
destruction of her little property. 'Father will make her pay dearly
for all this that he is muttering and grumbling about there. Oh,
whatever will become of her?'

Juechziger lived with his wife in the town, and the elder men gave
Conrad leave to run on ahead, that he might have time to tell his
mother about the destruction of her house, and prepare her for the
outburst of passion she might expect when her husband reached home.

The citizens of Freiberg were preparing at all points for the expected
siege. All the corn, hay, and straw stored at their farms in readiness
for the coming winter was brought into the city, and every care was
taken betimes that there should be no danger of famine; for experience
teaches that more strongholds have been conquered by hunger than by
hard fighting. The fear that the Swedes inspired in the city increased
when it became known that Leipzig and Pleissenburg had fallen into
their hands on November 28, and that Silberstadt was their next
destination. It was a fortunate circumstance that armies in those days
could no